MEGA!! Dusky Thrush at Beeley, Derbyshire!

“It ain’t over until the fat lady sings” – an extremely fitting phrase as the autumn that just keeps on giving conjured up yet another outstanding bird to finish 2016 off nicely, this time in the form of a fine first winter male Dusky Thrush frequenting the gardens and orchards in the rural village of Beeley in Derbyshire. 

With news breaking late on the Sunday evening, but with the exact location remaining mysteriously cryptic, it was all systems go come Monday morning as news filtered through that the mega thrush was still present and precise site details were revealed to those eager to make the visit in to Derbyshire. Thankfully being able to take the rest of the day off work (I didn’t fancy an agonising week ahead being bombarded with envy-inducing photos over social media) we were soon well on our way through the Peak District, navigating the winding roads and patches of ice to reach our destination just before lunchtime, when we promptly met a large crowd of birders blocking the road and eagerly looking around the gardens. 

With the Dusky Thrush mostly favouring the playground and orchard of Dukes Barn Outdoor Activity Centre, it soon transpired that this was one extremely mobile thrush, commuting between several sites in the area and having also taken a liking to a stand of Hawthorn bushes directly behind the village playing field. Having disappeared from view 10 minutes before arriving, the chase was now on!

The stand of Hawthorns by the playing field the Dusky Thrush took a liking to

Thankfully, we didn’t have long to wait, as a cry from a little further down the road that the Dusky Thrush was in view saw the whole crowd stampede to the right, clamouring for viewing space on the narrow lanes while tripods, hats and bodies obscured the view for those unlucky enough to find themselves at the back of the pack.

Sure enough, there was indeed a bird perched high up in one of the Hawthorns, but the none-abating mist and poor, dull light rendered it just a dark shape nestled amongst the twigs – indistinguishable as the target bird and frustratingly flitting down on to the ground and out of sight. A tantalising glimpse but most definitely not good enough when a 13th for Britain lifer of a mega thrush is on the line! 

Thankfully, around 10 minutes later and to the relief of those around, I managed to re-find our quarry, once again perched in the same Hawthorn tree and this time easily distinguishable from the associating Redwings by the rounded black spots on the breast and flanks, prominent white throat patch, bold supercilium and lack of rusty red on the flanks that the Redwings are famous for. 

The Dusky Thrush remained frustratingly distant for most of the day!

Flying a tad closer before once again disappearing off over the rooftops, our views were yet again limited to a minute at most, and with no further sign or reappearance for the next hour and a half, we were in for a long, cold wait in an attempt to get better views of what, in good light, is a truly stunning bird.

Eventually, the wish of the swelling crowd was granted as the Dusky Thrush finally gave itself up in the grounds of Dukes Barn late in the afternoon, perching in the small orchard trees and feeding on apples for a prolonged period - allowing all those present to get a good look at this eastern mega. 

After a while the Dusky Thrush once more displayed its flighty nature, disappearing off through the trees and out of sight. I was pretty certain as to where it was heading, and sure enough, as just 3 of us climbed the small hill of the playing field to take a look at the row of Hawthorns everyone had been staring at an hour earlier, we were met with the first winter male hopping around on the grass in front of us, parading around proudly and displaying the fine speckled black breast band and dusky tones. These were the views I’d been after! 

With the crowds cottoning on and with more and more people arriving, the Dusky Thrush soon flew in to the adjacent trees, once again offering a great comparison with the Redwings and Song Thrushes despite the now extremely poor and rapidly fading light.

The Derbyshire Dusky Thrush represents just the 13th record for Britain, hot on the heels of a male photographed on St Marys, Scilly, back in October and just 3 years after the well-twitched (if not somewhat dubious in purity!) Margate bird of May 2013, before which there had been a lengthy gap of 23 years between records! With Margate being too far to twitch at the time and thinking it may have been a regrettable blocker for some time yet, I was especially glad that another bite at the Dusky Thrush cherry had come around so soon, an additional bonus at being just over an hour away from home!

Despite the originally poor views and freezing conditions, the last views of the Dusky Thrush on the grass in front of the wall saved the twitch, and having gripped back this mega thrush we headed home happy! Whether this is the "fat lady’s last song" so to speak remains to be seen however, and judging by how the year has gone so far, there may well be one last throw of the dice in the birding world during the closing weeks of 2016 yet. Here’s hoping! 

Directions:

Dusky Thrush Map!

For those wanting to visit, parking is at Dukes Barn off School Lane (DE4 2NU) for a small donation fee of £3. The Dusky Thrush is extremely mobile and the several spots it seems to favour are highlighted in purple on the map. The best locations to try and spot it are the row of Hawthorn trees as viewed from the small playing field off Chapel Hill, and the apple trees in the orchard as viewed from the Dukes Barn car park.

Crag Martin in the bag - Crooked Spire, Chesterfield

Crag Martin! What a bird, what an agonising week in work and what a roller coaster ride of emotion - all thanks to one tiny Mediterranean Hirundine taking to the skies in a Derbyshire town!

After missing the well twitched Crag Martin at Flamborough in April last year due to flying out to Spain the same weekend it arrived, me and Alex were sure it would be a considerable wait until we got another opportunity to see this mega bird in Britain again – if ever. Even though we had seen plenty during our trip to Spain, it wasn’t quite the same as seeing one in the UK, and the Flamborough Crag Martin definitely fell in the category of one that got away….

Fast forward a year and a half to last Sunday morning when the alert on my phone came through detailing the incredible report of a Crag Martin flying around the crooked spire in Chesterfield! This was an opportunity we simply couldn’t miss! Leaving on first news and despite the bird disappearing on several occasions, it reassuringly kept returning to the spire throughout the afternoon, obviously favouring the tall structure as a point of interest in the Chesterfield landscape.  I had a good feeling – it felt like we would connect.

However, at 13:50 news came out that the bird had flown off and not yet returned, and despite a vigil at the spire with another hundred or so birders in the hope that it would come in to roost, there was sadly no sign through to dusk.

Several birders were convinced it would be back in the morning, with Crag Martins on the continent often returning to the same structure or spot once they have taken a liking to it, and were staking out the crooked spire from dawn. The mega alert noise on my phone while walking through the door at work on Monday morning therefore stopped me in my tracks and my heart sank – it had to be the Crag Martin back. Phew – false alarm, it was only the Hudsonian Whimbrel in Cornwall. A second alert 10 minutes later however wasn’t so welcome – the Crag Martin was indeed back and flying around the spire! Gutted was an understatement.

An agonising work in week then ensued, before the dreaded news on Wednesday came though that there had been no sign at the church all day – this mega visitor had apparently departed without us managing to connect.

However, searching for ‘Crag Martin’ on twitter late on Thursday night, I came across a tweet from the same day by a birder saying he had enjoyed views of it flying around the spire that very morning! What on earth?! Sending the photo to Alex he sent the news in to Birdguides in case the bird had been remarkably refound – we still weren’t sure if this was a mistake or even a wind up after all the local publicity the bird had been receiving. Regardless, the report being publicised the next day worked, and sure enough (despite the sighting at one point being renounced as a hoax/plane) at half 9 that morning the few birders present confirmed the unbelievable – the Crag Martin was back for more! Every weekday worker/twitcher unable to get time off breathed a collective sigh of relief across the country. The Crag Martin twitch was back on!

Red-throated Pipit - Ludworth Moor (Derbyshire/Manchester)

With an alert popping up mid-morning on the Sunday telling us there was a Red-throated Pipit showing in a field up near Manchester on Ludworth Moors, it was a no brainer to take the trip to try and catch up with this local mega, hoping it would stay the course and remain loyal to the site for the rest of the day.

With records usually emanating from the Scilly Isles or as flyover individuals, Red-throated Pipits are notoriously hard to twitch, so it was all systems go heading down the motorway! Usually less than an hour from my house, it was rather unfortunate that we were based in Wales for the night, but we made good progress and managed to arrive on site just after lunch.

With the bird showing well as soon as we arrived, the assembled birders luckily got us on it through their scopes, and we enjoyed great views for all of about 5 seconds before it took high to the air and flew off over in the distance! Would that be it?! A short, sweet and very jammy encounter?!

Luckily the pipit had flown only as far as the field across the track, and after 5 minutes or so it took to the sky again, flying directly over our heads and landing in the original sheep field. Making its distinctive flight call once as it did so, this was a great opportunity to experience the call in the field, and ideal to help nail the ID on any possible flyover Red-throated Pipits in the future.

Walking back to the road, we were able to look over the stone wall across to where the pipit had landed, and after emerging from the tussock it treated us to excellent views on the deck as it fed amongst the grass and sheep poo – taking advantage of the abundance of small insects present. Parading around in front of us, we took in the rich red throat and head, an exceptionally bright bird and standing out from the accompanying Meadow Pipits by a mile.

One of the rarer pipits on the British list, the bright red colouration of the head and throat were distinctive in these circumstances, but with drabber plumage and standing out much less, autumn individuals can usually be identified by the whitish mantle stripes, streaked  back and lack of any broad white wing bars.

The whitish mantle stripes can be seen in this shot

It’s not often that we get Red-throated Pipits in this plumage, with first winter birds in the autumn seen most often, so it was a rare opportunity to study this beautiful pipit up close. With very few twitchable mainland records in the past 10 years, this was a fantastic bird to catch up with and even better that it was so local!

Being in the area, we also popped in to Pennington Flash to catch up with one of the many Black Terns that had been grounded in the UK by the poor weather overnight, and we enjoyed distant views of this beautiful tern, the stunning smoky black plumage really standing out from the accompanying Common Tern flock. A nice Willow Tit gathering nesting material was also a nice surprise outside Teal Hide, having not seen any at the regular feeding station when we stopped by.

A trip to Meols to end the day failed to turn up the 3 Dotterel that had amazingly been showing on the beach that afternoon – a crazy sighting - but a gorgeous summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper and flyover Grey Plover were both nice consolations!