Rare bird spotted

[ian531]

Hi

I took a picture of a strange looking bird in my garden in early December. I had been on the lookout for some waxwings that were in the area as my brother is a keen bird watcher and he wanted to see them.

The bird I took the picture of looked like a strangely coloured thrush. I showed my brother who said it was definately something rare and not from the UK.

I sent the picture earlier this week to the Manchester Birding Group for identification. I received a very excited reply from the Rarities Specialist to say this was a very rare find. He said if I had notified him on the day I saw it, a minimum of 2000 people would have descended on my garden!

The bird is a Dusky Thrush from Asia, the nearest location it could of come from is Mongolia.

The pictures and a report can be seen at

www.manchesterbirding.com/duskythrushdoc.htm

It has since been all over the bird watching forums with some people saying this could be the rarest bird seen in the UK in 2010!


Not bad for someone who usually spots planes.

Ian

[Biggles]

I did that once with a bird I tried to ID via a twitchers web site, the only suggestion I have is don`t, I have never seen so many bobble hatted bin carrying weirdos in anoraks and kagools arrive from everywhere.

[ian531]

You may be right.....even though the bird was seen 6 weeks ago I've just read on a bird spotting forum there will be about 1000 twitchers descending on us tomorrow.

Might have to start charging for car parking, cups of tea and use of the toilet !

Pity I didnt see a plane as rare as this !

Ian

[Deleted]

Jan 21, 2011 18:35:37 GMT 1 Biggles said:

I did that once with a bird I tried to ID via a twitchers web site, the only suggestion I have is don`t, I have never seen so many bobble hatted bin carrying weirdos in anoraks and kagools arrive from everywhere.

Sounds like the viewing "grandstand" at Heathrow

GC

[stu]

Jan 21, 2011 19:00:25 GMT 1 ian531 said:

there will be about 1000 twitchers descending on us tomorrow.

Leigh has never been so busy!!

But nice catch Ian, well done.

[ian531]

Looks like the twitchers have stayed at home - thank God.

It's been intresting reading the bird watching forums talking about this.

They are gutted i didn't tell anyone earlier, but glad i did if it stopped a load twitchers climbing over my garden fence!

Ian

[ian531]

This 'rare bird' has got a bit out of hand

My photo's are going to be in three bird watching magazines and I was in yesterday's Manchester Evening News!

Ian

[Biggles]

Start charging a fee

[ian531]

Yes, I will get a fee for each use of my images.

Not a great deal but not bad for a few seconds work ;D

Ian

[ian531]

I spent the day down at Rutland Water yesterday for Birdfair 2011

My image of the Dusky Thrush bird was entered in the Carl Zeiss Award 2011, awards were presented by Simon King

Unfortunately, I came second

The winner picked up a pair of Carl Zeiss 8x32 binoculars worth about £1200. But I did get to meet Johnny Kingdom

This is what all the fuss was about. First confirmed sighting since 1959. Think I'll stick to planes in the future ;D



Ian