Rare bird spotted in Kendal garden (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Rare bird spotted in Kendal garden

11:08am Friday 19th February 2010 in News By Natalie Stewart

KEEN birdwatchers have travelled from afar to catch a glimpse of a rare bird in a Kendal garden.

A juvenile rose-coloured starling was first spotten in New Hutton but has since moved onto a garden in Rusland Park.

Bird lovers from as far as Scotland and Northumberland have travelled to see the bird, which is only the seventh of its species reported to have been seen in Cumbria since 1991 - the last time being in 2006 - and only the second juvenile.

Mark Graham, of Kendal, said he had not seen a rose-coloured starling in the area before.

The bird is pale brown in colour as a juvenile but turns unmissably colourful with a black head, wings and tail and a rosy pink body as an adult.

It normally winters in India but Ronnie Irving, Cumbria Bird Club recorder for South Lakeland and Furness, said it was likely that the youngster had got lost during migration.