Dave, Ken, Roger and I had
arranged to go to Lakenheath and then the Norfolk coast today but overnight
news of a Dusky Thrush in Kent caused us to rearrange our plans. After picking Ken up at Corby we drove to
Margate Cemetery where the bird had been present for the last three days and
again this morning. We managed to get
parked quite close to the entrance to the cemetery and we joined several
hundred other birders present on site.
The bird was perched in a sycamore and was only partially visible but
over a two hour period I managed to see most of the bird but only briefly in
full view.
The head pattern was not
totally unlike a Redwing, which is was initially thought to be, but the ground
colour was greyer and the supercilium and submoustachial stripe lacked any of
the rufous tones of Redwing. The
ear-coverts and crown were greyish-brown and the greyish-white supercilium
flared behind the eye. There was a
distinct greyish-brown malar stripe and the throated was finely spotted. The underparts were greyish-white with
greyish-brown spots on the upper breast and flanks merging into a greyish area
on the lower flanks. The ventral region
and under tail coverts were whiter. The
upperparts were greyish-brown with the greater coverts edged white, the
tertials and primaries more narrowly.
The secondaries where noticeably more rufous and formed a distinct
mid-wing panel. The tail colouration was
as the rest of the upperparts and again the feathers were finely edged
white. The orange colouration on the
bill extended a fair way along the length becoming brown at the tip and along
the culmen. The legs and feet were
pinkish.
A single Ring-necked Parakeet
was observed in flight.
We called at Reculver on the
way home where a female Montagu’s Harrier had been reported. When we arrived on site we found out that
there was also a male Red-backed Shrike present but as we walked along the bund
apparently very few birders had seen it and it was very a long walk. We decided due to time that it would not
possible to attempt the shrike but we did have good views of the harrier.
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