On Saturday 7th October the weather was awful. For most people that is. For the birder, heavy rain for 24 hours with a light ENE wind can only mean one thing - migrants!
I stepped out of the door at 08.30 to the swirling sounds of hundreds upon hundreds of thrushes teaming out of the sky. Most years recently have only seen a small trickle of thrush migrants as early as this with most not coming in until late October or even early November. Especially Fieldfares.
During an hour standing around the village getting soaked, a minimum of 2700 Redwings, 50 Fieldfares and a few Blackbirds and Song Thrushes arrived. The back field behind us was carpeted in birds.
It was while getting some respite from the rain indoors while scoping the thrush carpet from our kitchen window ( I wish I had taken a blog photo of that), a smaller bird flitted into view, dropping onto the plough between the larger birds. It was very dull and raining leaving the birds more soggy than I was so initially I couldn't work out what the small visitor was. It was sat hunched, facing me, reminding me a bit of a Dester Wheatear but it wasn't quite right.
It was only when it flew a short way and began feeding by hopping, and flying from clods of earth that it dawned on me. It was a Stonechat. A Siberian Stonechat. From inside our kitchen.
These days I don't keep up as much with the very latest taxonomy but to begin with the bird looked more dark orange that most peachy Sibechats I've seen so wondered about it being Amur or Stejnegers Stonechat? A further 10 minutes watching through the scope, showed that its apparent dark tone was nothing more than the grim light and damp feathering causing it. As the rain eased a bit the bird became more perky and looked paler. It was quite the shape shifter though, changing tone and even pattern according to its angle.
After scribbling some notes I decided to go out to try and photograph it with the camera. My phonescoped shots are dire, as I'm sure you will agree.
The best plans though don't always work out and as I approached the field a wave of thrushes headed west and there was no futher sign of the chat. It seems it was travelling with them and moved on.
Back home after checking some literature, I don't think I could attempt a specific id on this bird but its going down as Eastern Stonechat and its still a total garden mega so I'm having it.
By lunchtime, most of the thrushes had moved on west leaving the place quiet as if nothing had happened.
 |
| Above, Eastern Stonechat, apologies for the photos. |
No comments:
Post a Comment