After eventually finding the area i needed to be and parking up,i made my way onto the reserve to see a group of birders,stood around chatting,this didn't look promising and after speaking with some of them,it became clear the bird had flown off....crap!.
Birding buddy Dave Aitken arrived,so at least i had someone good to chat to and as we talked about the previous autumn and Dave finding Britains fourth Eastern-crowned Warbler on his patch at Bempton,someone shouted that the bird had been refound,little did we know it would be a mile away!.
We walked as fast as we could following some locals and eventually arrived were the bird was being watched in a Oil seed Rape field.Initially it took a little while to get onto it,but then there she was feeding in amongst the Oil Seed Rape plants with a flock of Redwing and 2 Mistle Thrush.We watched as she fed on several worms giving decent views through the scope at some distance though,but at least the bird had been relocated for the crowd of about 50 birders present.
You could make out several distinct features about the bird,with her dull whitish supers,white moustaches,white throat,yellow bill with dark tip,grey-brown plumage and finely streaked upper breast and flanks making for a handsome bird.
Suddenly the flock took off and i managed to keep tabs on her and they all landed in an Ash tree.Even at long range you could distinguish the bird was a BTT and it was interesting to note the concolorous rump and upperparts,something i hadn't noticed on the bird at Newholme back in January 2010.
Again as on the last occasion,the bird flew,but this time was lost to view,but i noted it did look Redwing like in flight,but maybe a tad longer winged.
We wandered back to our cars and i said my goodbyes to Dave after another successfully twitched bird and more importantly,only my second sighting of the species.
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| 1st winter female Black-throated Thrush,picture courtesy of Dave Aitken. |
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