Potters Bar & Barnet Local RSPB Group

Photos

Photographs are always welcome on this site. If you have any good photos of birds that you would like to share with others please contact us. Credits will be given for any that are displayed on this site.

Please click the links below to see a contribution from José Saenz who lives in Costa Rica and from Brian Gray who lives in Potters Bar.

A Twitch on our Doorstep 

by Sally Bennett 

On 13th November 2005 the Herts Bird Club website posted exciting information that a grey-cheeked thrush had been seen in Northaw Great Wood  - right opposite our home!  This is a rare vagrant from the Eastern United States, only recorded once before in England.   It may well have been blown over on the tail-end of Hurricane Wilma.  In no time at all a major twitch was on.  The first we knew of it was, when taking a Sunday morning stroll in the wood, we noticed the unprecedented occurrence of the car park being full to capacity and many more vehicles parked on the roadside; then another unusual fact that we were passing people with binoculars and scopes, whereas we normally only meet the local dog walkers.

Although not too easy to see in amongst the trees and scrub, the thrush was truly obliging and has remained in the same part of the wood for nearly two weeks, foraging in the leaf litter, seemingly oblivious of the army of twitchers nearby.  The local dog walkers were mystified!  To be honest, we are not normally in the business of twitching, but on this occasion we had only to cross the road from our house and walk three minutes into the wood to join the throng.

The Grey-Cheeked Thrush as seen in Northaw Great Wood

Photographed by Les Borg, local group member and well-known wildlife photographer.©

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