The arrival of a distinctive visitor to west Kerry this week could be a rival to Fungi. In just four days, she has attracted photographers, artists and those with very large telescopes to Ballyferriter on the Dingle Peninsula.
The Irish Rare Birds Committee consensus that this blow-in is almost certainly a brown shrike has sent those in ornithological circles into a bit of a flutter.
This is the first sighting of a brown shrike in Ireland. The last European sightings were in Denmark in 1988 and The Shetland Isles in 1985. The species is native to China and migrates to the Philippines, India and Bali, where it preys on an assortment of locusts, lizards and the occasional mouse.
Some of the most influential bird-watchers in Ireland came to Ballyferriter this week, puzzled by the arrival of the brown shrike in Kerry.
The bird was spotted first on Monday morning by Jill Crosher, secretary of the Corca Dhuibhne branch of BirdWatch Ireland. She knew immediately that it was a rare bird, maybe a red-back shrike, which would be a first in Kerry, or, at a stretch, an Isabelline shrike which would be a first in Ireland, although sometimes seen in Britain.
She phoned BirdWatch HQ in Dublin to enquire whether anyone could help her identify this bird, and so the trail began. The phone call was inconclusive and by Monday night the first expert had arrived on site.
The difficulty of identification was compounded by the fact that most observers had never seen a brown shrike and pictorial references were limited.
Some zealots suggested netting or shooting the poor creature in order to carry out blood tests. There was nothing else for it but to summon the Rare Birds Committee, who arrived on Wednesday morning.
Tensions ran high. Reputations were at stake. The committee agreed by consensus that this bird was a female brown shrike, although they are still investigating hybrid possibilities. The fact that it was female seemed to correlate with the difficulty in identification as, unlike humans, the females of this species are not featured in print.
In local quarters the news that the bird was a brown shrike was received with more consternation than celebration. The British would be on their way, possibly in large numbers and management could become a problem. A group of about 50 were trying to get on a Ryanair flight into Kerry Airport as the news broke and projections are of hundreds of twitchers by the weekend.
As to the future of the brown shrike, the hope is that once she realises that she is too far north, she will reorientate and fly south to a warmer climate. We wish her well.
Michaela Connolly is a freelance journalist and may be contacted at michaelactinet.ie; BirdWatch Ireland, tel: 01-280 4322, has a website - www.birdwatchireland.ie - BirdWatch Corca Dhuibhne may be contacted at crosh@eircom.net