Bragging rights

I make absolutely no claim for this photo, except that it shows a Bluethroat, which is a relatively rare passage migrant bird in the UK, and the reason it’s my post for today is that I’ll probably never see another. Also, it’s very likely that this will be the only experience I ever have of being in at the start of a mini-twitch: I was on a Naturetrek day tour around the north Norfolk coast today with three other people, and within moments of us spotting the bird our guide, John Williamson, identified it and sent out an alert. The five of us then enjoyed our last few peaceful minutes with the Bluethroat before other local birders began to arrive. Within quarter of an hour the gateway from which I took this shot was filling with tripods and scopes, at which point our group went off to look for other things, and when we came back, half an hour or so later, the lane was busy with cars, the gateway was full, and the Bluethroat had taken itself off into cover.

The Bluethroat used to be classed as a small thrush, but it’s now considered to be a chat, and is grouped among the flycatchers. This is interesting because when we first saw it, flitting across a drainage channel, we thought it might be a Stonechat, but a closer view revealed markings that are superficially similar to those of the Redwing (though it’s a much smaller bird, being closer in size to a Robin). If I’d been on my own, rather than in the company of a man with forty years of birding experience, I’d have no chance of identifying it, and I’d have had to rely on the Obsidentify app being able to make sense of my photos.

Having managed to find a rarity within the first half hour, the rest of our day could have been pretty anticlimactic, but luckily the whole tour proved to be both enjoyable and informative. After Salthouse we went to RSPB Cley Marshes, where the hides are all thatched, and where I finally managed a (ridiculously distant) photo of a Cattle Egret actually standing on a cow. Finally, after lunch, we took a long walk out through Kelling Water Meadows to the beach, where once again John Williamson found us some notable migrants: this time an incoming pair of Red-throated Divers.

There’s plenty of information about the Bluethroat, and photos of the males in their incredible breeding plumage, here, here, and here, if you’d like to know more.

R: C5, D15.