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Crake causes flutter among far north twitchers





Caithness is renowned for its range of impressive rare visiting birds, including the distinctive and exotic Hoopoe. Photo: Karen Munro
Caithness is renowned for its range of impressive rare visiting birds, including the distinctive and exotic Hoopoe. Photo: Karen Munro

CAITHNESS has been treated to a very rare visitor in the birding world – a spotted crake.

It is very unusual for the bird to be found in the county and Julian Smith, chair of the local branch of the Scottish Ornithologists’ Club, was the lucky one to discover it.

Late one night last week he was at St John’s Pool, beside St John’s Loch, Dunnet, and heard the distinctive ‘whipping’ of a singing spotted crake. The bird sang until 2.30am but was not heard subsequently.

The UK’s birds can be split in to three categories of conservation importance – red, amber and green – and the spotted crake is on the amber list.

Adults are the size of a starling and have a brown back with dark streaks, a blue-grey face and an olive-brown breast – all covered with white flecks and spots.

They live in freshwater wetlands with shallow water and dense vegetation. It is rare in the UK and difficult to see as it spends most of its time in thick cover. Spotted crakes used to be a regular in the county during the late 1990s and into 21st century, but have become far more infrequent recently.


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