On Monday 6th May, fully restored back to rude health after over 3 weeks of feeling distinctly unwell following a debilitating stomach bug and wanting to catch up on lost time/ birds, I particularly targeted those species I have yet to see this year including Cuckoo, Garden W, Lesser W, Reed W, Swift, & Hobby. A quick look after work at Filby Broad resulted in an unexpected sighting, I saw Ken S who said the Grebes were still there. From the boardwalk, I saw them bang in the middle of the broad,
2 resplendent summer plumaged Black- necked Grebes right in the middle of the broad, they constantly dived (the left hand one) when one dived the other quickly responded. Albeit the Grebes were seen seen against the light, so the finer points of their plumage could not be fully savoured, although fortunately they were not swimming around in the extensive sun patch on the water which would have made the viewing impossible.
Arriving at Carlton Marshes just after 7pm, walking over to Spratt's Water Marsh, I saw the omni- present Kyle M at this location, he pointed out a
Barn Owl hunting over a distant western marsh, I saw an excellent
Cuckoo, one of my target birds, flying low and right over the bushes. I also saw singing
male Reed Bunting and taking the marsh walk heard both
Reed (another target bird but alas not seen) and Willow Warbler. 2 Jay screeched from a nearby wood,
8 Swallows flew over here. By the far side,
Cetti's warbler and a
Sedge warbler and a
female Linnet seen to fly into a tree. I met a new chap keen on birds and photography and was explaining how to tell birds by their song/ call, he seemed amazed by this, but I have got over 40 years worth of experience and learnt the songs by following up any calls I didn't recognise, doing my "birding apprenticeship" as the late Brian B would have called it. Walking back by the reeds bordering the long dyke, a
Sedge Warbler seen singing from behind some reeds.
On Sunday, 18th May, again not feeling well, the sickness bug I had contracted now replaced by toothache which had started after ironically visiting the Dentist for a check-up. I rested up, being in some pain, at home this morning. I received a very welcome call late lunchtime from John H and feeling much better, agreed to take a seat offered with both him and Tony Str who wanted to twitch the Dusky Thrush in Margate, Kent. They arrived at 1.30pm and 3 and a half hours later we drove into the seaside town of Margate. Using John's smartphone (or maybe not so smartphone on this occasion?) we got lost several times (which is unusual because John is the best map reader I know, he was let down by the technology) and it took us half an hour to find the cemetery. On one nearby road we heard the familiar "Kee-Kee-Kee" of a group of 8 and then a single Ring- necked Parakeets flying over the road and over our heads. We eventually found the ceremony St. John's Cemetery and parked right at the entrance, walked to a chapel, where we saw a Red Fox walk nonchalantly across the path totally unconcerned by our presence! Eventually we saw a few birders and we turned right and joined them looking into a collection of well scattered medium sized trees. It had been seen a few minutes ago. We looked and after several minutes I saw a movement in a tree and Alistair a chap I knew a few years ago spotted it in a tree. It, the magnificent 1st winter female Dusky Thrush was perched 10 feet up in a tree looking directly up from a slanting gravestone. Only problem was the bird's head was obscured by a branch. Kneeling down, I could just about see the lower half of the head and the beady black eye and part of the yellow/ black bill. A large Thrush, appearing to be slightly bigger than Fieldfare, it was grey on the head with thick white supercilia white lower eye crescent, a thick black malar stripe extending onto the breast, thick blackish notches on the sides of the breast becoming thinner at the middle of breast forming a "necklace" with more brownish thick notches on the flanks, it had a grey brown back and on one occasion I noticed a more distinct rufus- brown tail, but in other light conditions it looked greyer brown! These browner features with a warm brown tone on the shoulder and some warmer tones on the breast and especially the colouring of the tail could be well within the range of variation for a Dusky Thrush or may indicate this bird could be an integrade (?) between Dusky Thrush and Naumann's Thrush, which if the latter assumption proves correct will disappoint many birders and twitchers who twitched this bird. Nevertheless, she was a smart bird, anyway! Finally, back to the initial sighting, all of the head was seen as it first stretched up and then down before it flew across to the middle of the tree by the trunk by the main path. I could see it through the foliage and it jumped onto a closer branch (see middle picture with this post) before briefly alighting on the ground by a gravestone, before flying left again and into a bigger tree viewable on the left hand edge. From here it eventually flew to a tree by the crossroads, where it was seen perched near the very top right hand edge of the tree. From here it again flew to the western edge of the Cemetery where it was seen perched behind some foliage on the left side of the tree. She then flew to a tree just in front of me and I took full advantage taking several shots of it showing brilliantly, albeit behind a branch or too, I really should get Photoshop to clone these out! It stayed here for a couple of minutes before eventually flying right. Walking back groups of 2, 3 and 4 Ring- necked Parakeets seen and heard flying overhead. A Mistle Thrush was also heard rattling but sadly not seen.
