Worried as they were regular readers of my blog and had recognised Sam. Also, a special mention is owed to the friendly couple from Craster whoĪpproached me and said, ‘you must be Brian?’ My first thought was, good grief what have Lives in the cottage on the Snook as we had an enjoyable and long chat with herĪnd she made us and other birders feel welcome. I must give special mention to the lady who
Time had we chased after birds to increase our list, as that is simply not ourīirders today, all enjoying themselves in the manner that suits them. I know neither of us would have enjoyed the See (and we saw most of them), we saw very well. See all the rarer birds involved in the autumnal fall, but we did thoroughlyĮnjoy the hours we had spent on the island and in the main, the species we did In plenty of time to beat the incoming tide, and once again passed the Littleįooted Geese were seen as we drove down the AI. Keen to find the shrike as it would be his first ever shrike of any of theĮventually made a return to the Vicarage Garden and ended our visit with evenīetter sightings of Red Breasted Flycatcher and Yellow Browed Warbler We still had sighting of the Lesser Grey Shrike, if a somewhatįamily of Stonechats were on the bushes as we chatted to another birder We took it more slowly and watched MerlinĪnd Short Eared Owl as we ambled along. Hurrying along the lonnen in chase, so we had these Redstarts to ourselves. Even better was sighting of two RedstartsĮlse seemed to have only Lesser Grey Shrike on their mind and were On the lonnen watching Redwings and our first Fieldfares of theĪutumn. Passed more Brambling, and calling Yellow Browed Warblers and ofĬourse the ever present Goldcrests and Robins. The herd and even stopped for a drink and piece of cake in the village having Nonchalant about it all and eventually made off in the opposite direction to Little bunting had returned and there was a mass exodus of fast-moving Geese and the large flock of Golden Plover in the air. By now we had also watched a large skein of Barnacle Were also seen, these latter two species perhaps both reaching double figuresĪs seen and heard species by the time we had left the island. Even better, the Red Breasted FlycatcherĪlso showed well eventually, and was a lifer for Sam. The first bird I saw in the garden was Spotted Flycatcher. All plumages show the blue tail that gives rise to the name, and I thought that this photograph showed off this feature quite well.Parking up on the island, we made through the village to the Vicarage Garden which In truth I could not be certain which of the two species it is, but as it was in a river valley in Sichuan, China in November I'm pretty sure it must be Himalayan Bluetail (aka Himalayan Bush-robin). By contrast, Red-flanked Bluetail breeds across a huge area of northern taiga forest from Scandinavia to eastern Siberia and migrates to SE Asia for the winter. They breed in mountain scrub in the Himalayas and China, descending to lower altitudes in winter, but not usually moving far from the breeding grounds.
Females or immatures like this are just about identical.
This is actually a Himalayan Bluetail (Tarsiger rufilatus), a recent split from Red-flanked Bluetail but the differences are in adult male plumage, and the song. Nowadays it occurs annually, usually with multiple records. But about twenty years ago its status changed and it started to make regular appearances in Britain, usually in autumn, but sometimes in spring. When I started birdwatching Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus) was an almost mythical rarity with just a handful of records that few birdwatchers had seen in Britain.
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