Saturday, 18 May 2013

Rush for another rare thrush!

Late-breaking news on friday night meant a change of plans for saturday, so instead of a day on the patch I drove down to Margate in Kent with Carl C to twitch the Dusky Thrush. We arrived about midday and spent two and-a-half hours in the cemetery, enjoying good views on several occasions. 




Dusky Thrush


The shine was slightly taken off things when, upon arrival home, it transpired that questions were being asked about whether the bird was a hybrid, or at least contained some Naumann's Thrush genes. It's certainly true that the bird had a few chestnuty feathers at the top of its breast next to the wing, and similar tones to the lower flank, and the pale panel in the wing on the secondaries and greater coverts was very pronounced, although the former had a distinct buff wash. Given that I have no prior experience whatsoever of either Dusky or Naumann's Thrushes, I wont comment any further on this, but I'm crossing my fingers hard that the features this bird show will be demonstrated to be consistent with a pure Dusky!!

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