Bird News from Robin Newlin
Just after dawn, the trip’s highlight: an apparent “red-throated” Black-throated Thrush, seen well in good light but unfortunately not photographed. Initial identification of bird in profile was a 1st-year male Black-throated Thrush: a sleek medium sized thrush with slate-grey back, pure white flanks (a little thin black streaking) and under parts, entirely cold-toned (slate, sooty grey and black) face pattern and apparent black throat with white spotting. When the bird turned slightly, a neat red throat was revealed, bordered in black. The bird vanished when I moved to get my camera and was not relocated – vegetation in the area is very dense. Comments (e.g. on hybrids) are welcome – I left my Clements-Hathaway in the USA!
Not long afterwards, a Wryneck and a calling Pallas’ Leaf Warbler. 2 Stejneger’s Stonechats. 2 Radde’s Warblers and a Dusky Warbler. 1 Oriental Honey Buzzard. 10 White-cheeked Starlings. 2 Eurasian Kestrels. A Peregrine Falcon carrying an apparent pipit. 2 Pale Thrushes. 2 Oriental Reed Warblers. 2 Little Buntingsand 1 Yellow-breasted Bunting. 1 Yellow-throated Bunting. 1 small flycatcher sp. 1 Eastern Crowned Warbler. 1 Black Kite and 2 more Japanese Sparrowhawks.
On the return boat, a crowd of gulls around a little boy and his father throwing sae-oo kang. Heuglin’s and Black-tailed Gulls. Shrimp-in-a-cracker – what more could a gull want?
