Dark-throated Thrush

Dark-throated Thrush on Bute, Argyll, March 2007

The Dark-throated Thrush had been present in some gardens in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute, for some time. However the bird was very difficult to see. I finally cracked, especially as the bird was quite easy to get to. So the following day Craig and myself were on our way up the M74 toward Glasgow and then on to Wemyss Bay where we boarded the ferry. From the ferry port we could see several Black Guillemot, Eiders and a few Shags! The ferry trip was a rather wet and cold 30 minutes (all that for just £5.45 return)! As soon as we landed at Rothesay we made our way to Church lane where the bird was favouring some gardens.
On arrival there was a birder already looking for the thrush, he had been looking for a couple of hours but had not seen it! He also informed us that another birder at been looking for the bird and it had not been seen for at least three hours – this did not bode well!
I made my way down to the corner of the walled garden where there was a big chunk of concrete that I could stand on and peer over the walled garden. After about ten minutes, a bird perched up into a deciduous bush next to a leylandi tree. I could not believe it, it was the 1st winter male Dark-throated Thrush – Amazing. I called Craig and the other chap and managed to get them onto the bird. We got excellent views of the bird as it sat just 15-20yrds away. However as can be seen by my truly terrible attempt (below) before I could set up my camera properly it flew down into a garden and out of sight!

About 20 minutes later we got brief flight views as it flew into the leylandi. The weather turned grim and it lashed down with rain, we waited it out but to no real avail. Once the rain subsided we only got brief views of the thrush as it preened in the back of the laylandi tree! Still we had already got fantastic views, just a pity no decent pics were obtained! Other bird seen in the gardens were the usual common garden birds including siskin!
We made our way back to the ferry port and as we were waiting I picked out a 2nd winter Iceland Gull as it flew over. This was a superb bonus on a pretty successful.
Although this was Craig’s first trip to Bute, It was my second. I visited the Island back in May 2001 to see a Snowy Egret (one of four sites I observed this individual)!

Dark-throated Thrush (Black-throated race atrogularis) breeds in the Siberian taiga, westwards to the western slopes of the Urals. This species is a rare vagrant to the UK.