Golden-winged Warbler – Larkfield housing estate, New Hythe, Maidstone, Kent, 11^th February 1989

The Golden-winged Warbler in an amenity planting tree on the estate, attempting to capture just how I saw it (from a sketch soon afterwards).

Courtesy of In Focus (Slightly Blurred from now on!) I still didn’t have my binoculars on this day, this day of all days. Aaaaaargh!!!!!! After waiting for the post in the vain hope that my repaired / refurbished binoculars would finally be delivered, I set off and made good time to New Hythe.

On arrival the scenes were reminiscent of the good old days at Turf Moor – cars were parked solidly alongside all the roads for one kilometre around. The crowd scenes were even more reminiscent of a football match. Birders were standing around in groups everywhere throughout the housing estate but by dint of Citizen Band radio there was a series of what were the human equivalent of ‘dreads’ culminating in a colossal mass jog around almost a full circuit of Chaucer Way....... . [1]

The Larkfield Estate - the scene of the epic scenes!

Anyway, there then ensued a frustrating few hours...... . The bird moved around the modern housing estate quickly; it was elusive and although I had four(?) brief in flight views, I was severely hampered by my lack of binoculars.

It appeared so briefly and moved so swiftly in flight that views were limited for all, but particularly so for those without binoculars.... .

Also, a major handicap was the size of the galleries, which meant even if it did show long enough to set up the ‘scope, you couldn’t. But it was an amazing occasion – involving some 2,000 birders perhaps – so plenty of familiar faces. But what was best of all was the way the locals on what was a typical modern suburban housing estate coped with this invasion.

My best view (all were with the naked eye) of this star, star attraction was as it hurtled over a house roof and past us before very briefly landing in a small staked tree alongside the road I was on.

Given my naked eye only views I’ll not have the audacity to fully describe it. Simply? Stunning!!!!!!!

I have a vague memory of returning (possibly with binoculars!) and walking around the estate with Steve Duffield not seeing the bird (although very much enjoying the fantastic cheese butty he generously gave me) but I need to check my notes to verify this 😊.

[1] The problem being that a message was put out on the radios suggesting that the Golden-winged Warbler was at the end of Chaucer Way; unfortunately Chaucer Way was a loop with two ends, which resulted in general chaos. It emerged a few years later that it had been Pete Ewer who had been on the CB..... .

A famous image of the epic scenes. I'm not sure it was this bus, but a similar double-decker got stuck in the crowds and was stormed by birders who used it to get better views into adjacent gardens from the upper deck (photographer unknown).

The complete stunner that caused probably the largest twitch ever (photo credited to David Cotteridge).