When I checked if there was a collective name for Thrushes, I found it was a Hermitage of Thrushes: hence the title of this Blog Post. A Ring Ouzel had been found visiting a Rowan tree on the Middlebere track on Saturday 12 Oct 24. The Ring Ouzel was only making occasional short visits to the Rowan tree. I deliberately avoided the area over the weekend thinking that too many waiting local Birders & Toggers over the weekend were keeping its appearances brief and occasional. However, by the Tuesday morning, I thought it should be fairly quiet along the track. It was a reasonable day, albeit overcast, so the light wasn't great.
I arrived to find three other people present. The Ring Ouzel had put in a single early appearance, but nothing in the ninety minutes since. I settled down to wait. There was a good selection of other Thrushes and Blackbirds dropping in every now & then to feed on the Rowan berries.
After about an hour, the Ring Ouzel appeared very briefly and was see by an elderly couple. But it was in the lower left of the tree and out of sight for me and the other local Birder, Brian. This couple left soon after and we shuffled up into a better position. Another twenty minutes later it reappeared in the same part of the tree & I managed to get some photos in the minute or two it was present. After a further twenty minute wait, it reappeared and posed for another batch of photos. But after a couple of minutes in the tree, it was gone again.
I gave it another thirty minutes, but there were no more sightings. I decided to carry onto the hide as the tide was starting to drop. There were a few showy Chiffchaffs around the farm buildings.
There were 208 Avocets and 711 Black-tailed Godwits roosting on the mud, along with good numbers of Teal, Wigeon and some Pintail. After a while, a sub-adult male Marsh Harrier appeared. For the next hour and a half it patrolled over the marsh and occasionally it came closer to the hide. At one point, it clearly caught something as it was perched for about twenty minutes feeding, before resuming the patrolling.
