Discovery in the dunes
Endless hard graft on his local patch paid off in style for Sean Offord with a mega county first.
Blue Rock Thrush: Winterton Dunes, Norfolk, 20 October 2022
AFTER a slow autumn on my Winterton Dunes patch, the wind was finally in the east on the morning of Thursday 20 October and I felt optimistic. I was out at 7.30 am to undertake my customary autumn morning route through the ‘valley’, having seen Barry – one of the village birders – heading out for a seawatch. The valley was full of thrushes and there were many more Goldcrests than the day before too, so it felt pretty promising for a rarity. But despite looking everywhere, I could find little else and at 9 am I headed up towards Hermanus Holidays, the holiday accommodation complex of distinctive thatched roundhouses which sit above the dunes just south of the village.
This area is pretty much out of bounds to birders but the owners kindly allow a few locals to scan the complex from the top of the slope leading up to it from the South Dunes. At about 9.15 am, I got to the top of the slope. Immediately I saw a Grey Wagtail – a tricky year tick here. I knew that Barry would be interested so I rang him, but I couldn’t get through. I then noticed another bird come out from around the far side of the thatch lower down and shimmy up onto the TV aerial. It was roughly Blackbird sized, but the effortless, agile way it had bounced up the slope of the roof was very different from that species.
Somehow, I knew what I was looking at even before I raised my binoculars to get my first proper look – and when I did, the shock of confirmation was overwhelming. Sitting on the TV aerial, looking around with a lovely large eye and alert expression, sporting crazy zig-zag underparts all the way to the undertail, and casually holding a grub in its outlandishly long bill, was an immature Blue Rock Thrush!
I’m not really sure how I knew what species it would be, but
I had read the finder’s account of this spring’s Essex bird in Birdwatch (361: 10) only recently. I’d looked longingly at photos of that bird and of the species in general, imagining finding one here. And here I was, looking at one!
I had my camera on me and was shaking when I raised it, but I fired off about 20 shots. In the drizzle I sent a message to our village birders’ WhatsApp group, then called Barry again and miraculously got through to him. I needed someone else there urgently to verify that I wasn’t just making it all up in my head!
By about 9.50 am several locals had arrived and we had all started searching but couldn’t relocate the thrush. By now it was drizzling steadily. I was elated but also sad for the others as it seemed increasingly likely that the bird had moved on and
I was destined to be the only observer.
However, just after 10 am, we relocated it. I fired off another shot before it dropped out of sight. Amazingly it was still here! I wasn’t sure of the status of Blue Rock Thrush in Norfolk and asked if there had been any previous records – apparently not. The bird was by now showing very occasionally and disappearing for long periods.
It gradually dawned on us that despite the access problems, we needed to try to release the news. We spoke to the Hermanus manager and negotiated access for a car parking fee, and at 10.50 am news was out. Most birders who arrived through the morning were lucky enough to connect, but by early afternoon it had disappeared. Amazingly, though, it was relocated in the afternoon on the other side of the village. Sadly it was not seen the following day.
So, 14 years after my somewhat obsessive patch dedication had paid off with a first for Norfolk, I had found another one! One Black (Lark, in the dunes in April 2008), one Blue; I’m going for Asian Brown Flycatcher next, but on my current form it will probably be in 2036 … ■