I was about seven years old when, in the pages of the European field guide illustrated by the legendary bird artist Roger Tory Peterson, I first came across the Alpine accentor.
Something about this bulky cousin of our familiar dunnock must have clicked, because soon afterwards I was convinced I had seen one in our suburban front garden. Not just unlikely but, as I later discovered, impossible. That’s because, as its name suggests, the Alpine accentor is a rare vagrant to Britain from the mountains of central and southern Europe.
