Crag Martin - Chesterfield

I've been wanting another longer distance twitch for a while now and it couldn't have been better with a mega Craig Crag Martin in Chesterfield. So all week its been flitting around the Crooked Spire in the town center and disappearing time after time. Roosting where; nobody new. That was until yesterday when Chesterfield played Oldham at home and a birders brother picked it up in the stands whilst watching the game.

So myself and Martin headed up making our decision that if it hadn't been seen at the spire by the time we got there we would head for the stadium. The pager highlights it at 7.53am flying around inside the ground and we were approx half hour out.

As we arrive Martin picks out a small group of birders pointing, after an initial flap as to where to park we pretty much dumped it and legged it across the street. BOOM, from car to bird in 3 seconds. Blood pressure back to normal we spent the next hour here as the bird effortlessly flew in, around and over the stands. A rainbow highlighting its gold at its end.

It relocated whilst we got involved with beckie breckie to the spire.

Martin getting hold of beckie

It would have be rude not to see the spire after coming all this way so we headed into town, the numbers here grew and grew. I estimate about 100-150 in quite  small area. However the views were easy, we watched as it flew its way around the spire time after time. It was a joy to watch and a twitch that was seriously worth the effort.

The Spire is impressive in itself, if it was in Havering it would have scaffolding covering most of it waiting for building inspectors.

A seriously good morning and a superb little market town.