Uber mega rarity - dusky thrush - in Margate Cemetery

There have been only nine previous instances of a dusky thrush being spotted in the UK over the past 100 or so years.  So not really a bird you'd expect to appear mere yards from where you're sitting down and having a breather in good old Margate cemetery.

The pics are pretty poor - taken on a day when I didn't have Bigmos with me, I had to use my 70-200 with 2x teleconverter and was at f5.6 to boot, which tends to produce soft images.

I got my snaps just as the sun went in.  This little bird seemed perfectly happy to have me nearby and continued grubbing about for food on the ground as I tried to work out what it was.  I could unquestionably have got much better pictures had I known she was such a rarity.  She flew up into a tree when I got a bit too close but later went back down to hunt for more food.  But shortly afterwards I spotted a fox cub and went off trying to get a few snaps of that.

Imagine my surprise when I read online that a couple of days after these snaps were taken, well over 1000 twitchers descended on the cemo hoping to catch a glimpse of this very bird...

Farley Foxtrot - king of Margate cemetery

This chap is starting to get used to me now.  I got almost within touching distance of him today.  All I had to offer him was rich tea finger biscuits but he seemed to enjoy them.  He then went off and stole loads of peanuts from the birds, which someone had put down earlier. He was in sight for about half an hour, popping up here and there, and having a leisurely amble round the cemetery in the unexpected sunshine.



Farley Foxtrot (17 pics)

Dances with foxes

Pair of playful foxes in Margate cemetery.

Dances with foxes (17 pics)