| A RARE SPARROW’s arrival in Norfolk has given an unexpected financial boost to the parish church in Cley next the Sea.
A white-crowned sparrow, normally found in parts of Canada and the United States, landed in the hedge of a retired priest, the Revd Richard Bending, and his wife, at Epiphany. “We felt rather privileged it had chosen our garden,” Mr Bending said on Tuesday.
He recognised that the bird was a very unusual one, and contacted members of the local bird club. Then it had to be decided how public to make the news.
“Either you tell nobody or it’s going to be a very big affair, because it’s so rare,” he said. “Fortunately, using bird feeders, we were able to persuade the bird to go regularly to a position on our driveway where the public could see it. It’s a nice thing to share with other people.”
The bird has made only four appearances in the UK in the past century. Birdwatchers turned up in droves, “not a scrum, but occasionally awkward when 150 people were trying to look at the same time”. Then the press arrived. Mr Bending praises the local bird club for its management of the situation, and the birdwatchers for their courtesy.
Birdwatchers have a tradition of putting out a bucket for a local cause when they arrive in droves to spot a rare bird. On this occasion, they chose to support the restoration of the local church, St Margaret of Antioch. “They viewed it as putting something back into the life of the village. It’s a virtuous circle and there aren’t too many of those at the moment,” said Mr Bending.
The bucket has filled up steadily, and the collection now stands at £3800. The Priest-in-Charge of Blakeney and Cley, the Revd Neil Batcock, is delighted, especially as work needs to be done on the church roof this year. St Margaret’s is regarded as a fine example of early-14th-century English decorated architecture — and on a large scale, as there was a port there.
“The bigger the church, the more there needs doing; so it’s very welcome,” said Mr Batcock. |
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