Black-throated Thrush

Thursday and a second Black-throated Thrush within striking range. I made a dash for it between work sessions, and dipped. That'll be that I thought.

Friday, and a quick look around the garden before  a later than usual start to work produced the second tristis Chiffchaff of the season as well as a standard one. No news on the thrush. Bad news was that I'd missed a small, on-patch flock of Waxwings, I'd have driven past them a time or two as well.

Saturday morning and I checked the garden, the tristis had gone. Checked for the Waxwings, no sign. Went round Palace, and for the first time for ages no additions to the patch year list.

1.00p.m. phone call from the Black-throated Thrush land owner, the bird has been present all day and would I like to come along at 2.00p.m? Yes please.

2.00p.m. and I'm being waved down to the site, it is apparently in view. Park up, down the track and... it has gone. Some long minutes are then spent in the world's smallest birding hide wrestling with scope, camera and self to get comfy when there's a call it's in the stubble field. Rapidly extricating myself from the hide and legging it back up the track I get a few distant views using the scope. RM suggests we go down through his garden and sneak up on the bird which we do and over the course of the next 40 minutes or so I get excellent views and some passable pics.

Black-throated Thrush

Many thanks to RM for the shout and for leading us a tramp around his garden so that we could see and photograph the bird.

Ah! Got to scoot the light is failing and the Crane has been relocated....

...but it had moved on again by the time I got there. Anyway can't complain, nice bit of WeBS this morning which again produced a Little Egret at Loch of Sabiston (local rarity) along with a nice selection of quackers, including a very lost looking Long-tailed Duck.