Thursday, November 5, 2009

Between a Rock and.....another Rock!!!

Did Suan Rot Fai again before work today.  Loads of birds active in the sunshine after yesterday's dull conditions - the trees seemed to be dripping with TAIGA FLYCATCHERS (had three together at one stage), and YELLOW-BROWED WARBLERS were much in evidence.  At least 3 BROWN SHRIKES seen well, and I was graced with another new bird for my patch list in the form of a SIBERIAN STONECHAT.


Sibechat

I wanted to check to see if yesterday's White-throated Rock Thrush was still around, but a first wonder through "The Ramble" produced nothing apart from an ARCTIC WARBLER and nice views of a couple of yellow-brows.  I made a second pass through the woodlot and soon found the WHITE-THROATED ROCK THRUSH  in the same area I had seen it yesterday, and watched it for a few minutes before it disappeared deeper into cover.  Satisfied with this I wondered back towards my exit, but after about 10 minutes was amazed to find ANOTHER WHITE-THROATED ROCK THRUSH!!!!!  I took lots of pictures of this new bird, and as you can see from the pictures below the pattern of white on the tertial tips and primary tips is less extensive than on the first bird.



1st bird - note those crispy white primary tips,
and the extensive white fringe to each tertial.


2nd bird - fringing on tertials less extensive,
white tips to primaries very narrow. Also the distance
between the tips of p3 and p4 seems shorter here.

Here are a few more pictures of the second bird.....just glorious!  You can also see on these pictures that the greater covert bar is less obvious on the 2nd bird, and there appears to be a more extensive pale base to the bill.









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