However, on Sunday 04/12, news emerged of a Dusky Thrush, in the rather surprising location of Beeley, a sleepy little village on the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District. What's more, it wasn't just a one day wonder and by midweek, myself Gareth & Dan provisionally penciled ourselves in for a drive north on Sunday 11/12.
Fast forward to Saturday 10/12 and pleasingly the bird was still present. So, first thing Sunday, myself, Gareth & Dan met up in Banbury and took the 2 hour drive north. We arrived around 9am as planned and plonked the car up in the nearby Chatsworth estate car park (there was no parking permitted in the village over the weekend). The hospitable locals had actually put on shuttle mini-buses for visiting birders to take them down to village, however we decided to take the 15 minute walk ourselves to get a bit of fresh air in the lungs.
We soon found the area where the bird was frequenting; a tiny orchard (so tiny in fact, orchard was stretching it a bit!) surrounded by birders, adjacent to the Duke's Barn activity centre.
The bird had only showed briefly, once at first light, however we didn't have to wait too long before it appeared around the apple trees. My first sighting was largely obscured, as it sat preening, with me looking through about 3 separate sets of branches. However there it was, a Dusky Thrush...great stuff! It disappeared off over our heads after a few decent views. This was enough for several birders at the front to move off and I got myself a nice spot right in front of the 'orchard', with Gareth & Dan not to far behind me.
We went on to get 2 or 3 further prolonged showings of the bird, never having to wait too long. All three of us gained some pretty mint views of the bird and by close to midday, we decided we'd had our fill...not before we'd enjoyed further Derbyshire hospitality with a cuppa and a sausage sarnie. Spot on! The locals really had been awesome, putting up signs around the village for birders, as well as all the refreshments and the minibus too. Good on them!
The walk back to the car was productive with views of a couple of very confiding Dipper along the river, as well as a number of calling Crossbills in some nearby spruce.
We next moved off to Cromford, south of Matlock, a regular spot for Hawfinch, high up in trees along a river gorge. We had a good scan around the area, however failed to rustle up anything of interest. We had a couple of hours to play with so being lovers of a good old gull roost, we decided to pop into Foremark Reservoir, a place regularly turning up decent Caspian Gull counts.
Foremark turned out to be a cracking little site. Fabulous numbers of gulls were to be seen, as well a long-staying female Common Scoter and a female Pintail. The main gull highlights were 3 Caspian Gulls (2 adults & a 1st-winter), as well as 2-3 adult Yellow-Legged Gulls to boot. The sunset was pretty breathtaking too and it was really entertaining meeting local birder 'Dipper', a bit of a Scillies veteran from the 80's glory days! Top day out with guys again!
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