Friday 13th October

With news of a Rock Thrush breaking late on Thursday it was a no brainer that this would be a target for us today. The bird was in South Wales at Blorenge a site which hosted a Mamora’s Warbler a few years back.

As I went to bed it was a clear night, not a good sign. So when the next morning there was no news we decided we would walk the Malvern ridge and wait for news. With a possible twitch on, we parked in the middle and climbed the Worcestershire Beacon first where there was a Wheatear and returned to the car. We then headed south to do the rest of the ridge. However, we hadn’t gone far when I received a message to say the bird had been relocated. So it was back to the car and with less than 50 miles to go we were there within the hour.

We arrived without too much difficulty and soon found a parking spot. It was a little windy, but having been along the ridge we were used to it. It was about a mile walk and there were a small group of birders watching the bird which was happy feeding on rocks near to top of a ridge just past a small quarry. After about 20 minutes the bird disappeared over the ridge as more and more birders started to arrive. I had a quick hello from Lee Evans when he left, and I saw an old mucker Darren at the end of the line. A birder from the other direction said he had seen a Black Redstart around the other side of the hill, so using this as an excuse (I needed a pee) I carried on round, there was a Wheatear and a few Meadow Pipits and it was a good area, very rocky with lots of cover and isolated bushes.

I was on my way back when I saw the Black Redstart briefly fly into the boulders, I was scanning the rocks but could not relocate the bird, whilst doing this I saw some movement and for a second I was perplexed, then realised that I was watching the Rock Thrush. I gestured to someone 100 yards away and within seconds I was surrounded.

Happy with the views Joy and I left and decided to return via Malvern and finish off the ridge which we did. All in all a great day, although the football didn’t finish as I would have liked.

Rock Thrush, Blorenge