News broke on Wednesday night which saw a few small groups of twitchers make their way and successfully connect the following morning.
At this stage we had no boat booked from Kirkwall and no concrete plans that we would make the return connection back to Aberdeen.
This is the 2nd record for the U.K. with the last one recorded way back in 1982!
We were really lucky in the end, helped by some smooth talking and bartering we managed to book onto a fully booked charter boat across from Kirkwall to Papa Westray. We made all our connection on time with one or two by the seat of our pants. The whole thing was gamble, one that paid off. This time at least.
When we arrived the bird was showing really well feeding on the lawn by a small cottage, the bird was doing a circuit of the building, its walls and gardens and appeared to be really settled.
My heart was pounding and I was barely able to keep the camera steady when I fisrt laid eyes on it. This was a really special bird and a great twitch, full of tension and the excitement of a the big pay off.
These beautiful, boldly-patterned thrush with their exquisite combination of blue-gray, orange, and black originate from the Pacific northwest of America.
