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Verily I say unto thee that’s one smart Thrush!


 

Jeremy and I left Worcestershire on Sunday 1st October for our much anticipated 12 day birding trip to Shetland. An uneventful 450 mile drive to Aberdeen and a smooth overnight ferry crossing had us docking in Lerwick early on Monday morning. A very rare American thrush called a Veery had been found on the mainland a few days previously and, if still present,  was our first planned destination.

 

A positive report soon came in so we made our way to its location at Lunna Kirk, a rather desolate area on the north of the mainland. I was familiar with this site as I had visited to see a Barred Warbler last year, see here. Kirk is a Scottish and old English name for a church and indeed there is a somewhat decrepit  church and graveyard on the cliff. On the opposite side of the road an old stone wall provides partial protection for a stunted line of sycamores. The sycamore is a common garden tree in Shetland, presumably being one of the few trees that can tolerate the harsh environment. On Shetland they always give me the impression that they would rather be anywhere else, never growing more than 10 meters high and looking as though they are hanging onto life by a thread. The Veery had taken up residence under the sycamores and it was immediately obvious when we arrived flicking through the dead leaves looking for grubs and worms in the typical manner of a thrush.

 

The Veery is a small attractive North American thrush  belonging to the genus Catharus. It is closely related to Swainson’s Thrush, a bird I saw in Shetland last year, see here. All members of the Catharus genus, unlike, say, our Song Thrush, have a characteristic underwing stripe. Adults are mainly light brown on the upperparts and white on the underparts. Their breast is light tawny with faint brownish spots and they have pink legs and a poorly defined eye ring. Veery breed in deciduous forests across southern Canada  and the northern United States and spend the winter in South America. In a British context it is a mega rare bird with just 11 records up to the end of 2020.

 

The Colins bird bible describes it as a shy bird that prefers to stay in cover. This bird had clearly not read its script as it was foraging fully out in the open, seemingly completely unphased by our presence. Having been already present for a few days many birders had already seen it so we had the benefit of an almost personal viewing. It was very photogenic often posing in full view and almost saying “take a picture”.










 

We spent an hour or so admiring our rare American visitor before moving on to see our next bird, leaving with the impression that we may have already seen our bird of the trip. 

 

 Footnote - My blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!   


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