This stunning male Black-throated Thrush has apparently been present since the beginning of January in gardens in Swansea, Glamorgan. On arrival the bird was showing fairly distantly (from the designated viewing area on a playing field outside a line of canes) in a berry bush in a garden adjacent to the field. However, it then went missing for a long spell, obviously visiting many gardens in the area and not being viewable from public areas. Several friendly locals came to converse with the birders, and one of these, Keith; offered to let Steve Morgan wait in his garden, hopefully allowing better views. Steve very kindly negotiated for the two of us to wait for the bird to reappear. From the garden we were a lot closer to one of the bird's favoured berry bushes, and after a fairly long wait and a lot of false alarms when a Blackbird or Starling landed in the bush, the Black-throated Thrush landed in front of us! Unfortunately it was usually obscured by the berries and twigs, but kept coming back to feed, and eventually moved to the top of the bush allowing some decent images to be taken. A much better looking individual than the recent Somerset bird, and showing well in superb light - well worth the trip. Thanks are due to: the locals who identified the bird and released the news, Keith, Steve Morgan and local birders who arranged access.
Prints of this bird are available for sale sizes up to A4. |
