Rock Thrush Twitch

It has been a while since I twitched a rare bird, so when a Rock Thrush turned up in South Wales, I teamed up with Dave Parmenter and Dave Cleal to see it.  The bird was in it's fifth day since being discovered by an 80+ year old birder high in the mountains at Pwll-Du.  It was a pleasant walk with great views across the valleys.  The weather was a bit breezy but with some pleasant sunshine.

It was a straightforwards journey and we arrived on site about 11:00am.  We walked about a mile along a mountain top track, passing a steady stream of birders leaving the site, all looking happy having seen the bird.  Once we arrived we soon saw the bird perched higher up on the rocks and managed a few photos. Over the next hour of so the bird moved around a fair bit, dropping down to the level we were on.  Never really close but good enough to get reasonable photos.

There are 36 prior records of this species in the UK.

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