By Sam Satchell
BIRD watchers were All Shook Up when one resembling the King of Rock and Roll made a flying visit to Forest Row.
The rare California quail, which has a forward-drooping head plume reminiscent of the quiff made famous by Elvis Presley, was spotted in the village last week.
Amateur wildlife photographer Gerry Lee took some photos of the unlikely visitor, which is native to north western United States, after it landed in his friend's garden.
He said: "My neighbour knows I'm into photography, and the other day he said there was a bird in his garden that he'd never seen before. I went along expecting it to be some British bird but to my astonishment, there was this California quail.
"I'd never seen anything like it before and after taking some pictures, I had to search online to identify it. It's a gorgeous little thing and I managed to get up really close to it."
The discovery follows the appearance two weeks ago of a short-toed eagle in Ashdown Forest, which attracted thousands of wildlife enthusiasts, and Mr Lee believes more unusual sightings could follow – because of unusual winds.
