Another stunning rail.

I was on the last day of a Majorcan holiday when a message from Malc Curtin alerted me to the presence of a Purple Gallinu or Swamphen in nearby Saltney. Relaying the message to the Wirral birders I sat back and relaxed with another beer until a text from Al Conlin infomred me he'd seen the bird and had identified it as the Eastern race. This sounded interesting.

Unable to sleep I was up early this morning and crept out of the house to drive the short journey to Saltney where only 3 -4 other people were already present. Sure enough the bird was there, dwarfing the local Moorhens and behaving like a wild bird - pulling down grass and reed stems to eat the seeds and occasionally chasing off the Moorhens. We also saw it in flight! The plumage is immaculate. Where ever its come from its a stunning if not incongruous site on a small stream opposite a Morrison's supermarket.