Black-throated Thrush
An adult male Black-throated Thrush was found at Top Hill Low in East Yorkshire only 26 miles away but having seen the male at Wykeham in early 2023 and the fact that photos looked as if the bird was generally partly hidden in scrub did not encourage me to make the journey then this week Tony Davidson posted some really nice shots on Twitter and with the cold weather and beautiful light forecast it seemed worth a trip. The start was not auspicious with queues on the Humber Bridge and all the way to Beverley I managed to get 8 miles in 45 minutes! Then is started to snow and by the time I got to the turn to Top Hill the access road, all 4 miles of it, was pretty tricky and pot holed to boot. Finally arriving at 09:30 I realised there was no-one in the car park, no map of where the bird was and by the ringing hut on Birdguides failed to ring any bells as I had not been for over 20 years!. Thanks to Tony a quick phone call and I was soon in the right spot but with no birders anywhere what was going on? Two Fieldfares defending the last few berries seemed ominous then there standing out like a very soar thumb was an apparition of black and white sat head on in a willow. A few record shots and I looked round for other birders but still no-one. I got a few better images in the beautiful sunshine and then it flew - towards me and landed again taking a few berries. This continued as it came closer and closer and showed no sign of being bothered by my presence. Swapping from the 2x converter to the 1.4x I took a few 100 more images and then settled down to try and get some flight shots as it hovered off the end of the berry bearing branches, some of which worked and some didn’t but what a privilege to be alone with this beautiful bird in these weather conditions and still no other birders after nearly 90 minutes. Checkout the greater underwing coverts. It called a few times while feeding and as people eventually arrived it moved into an adjacent small pasture field and fed on the floor. Well worth the £3.50 entry fee.
Since my first a young male at Coltishall in Norfolk in February 1976! I have seen nine of these splendid thrushes in Britain and just the one Red-throated Thrush! It would be a great bird to find and I check a lot of Blackbird flocks in
Black-throated Thrush Turdus atrogularis Top Hill Low, East Yorkshire January 18th 2024
