Northern Waterthrush: Local birder Eddie Aldridge first saw the bird when he captured it on a wildlife camera in his back garden and showed it to a man walking nearby, then the chaos broke loose.
The next day more than a hundred birders braved the damp and dreary weather hoping to get a glimpse, descending on the small village in search of a rare American warbler. They relocated the bird foraging within a ditch close to the house it was first seen.
This rare American passerine was one bird I wouldn't have dreamed of seeing this January, the first big big of 2024. So keen to go down I shook off what was my lingering cold and headed down.
This bird is well at home on this small ditch where it has been roosting at the base of the concrete culvert for over a week. The bird has been fairly reliable, returning to its roost site and leaving each morning before foraging along the damp banks of the ditch and the floating vegetation around the mouth of the culvert.
This bird is not actually a thrush species but a warbler, one that has a close relationship with its waterside habitats or which comprise of boggy thickets, especially willows and alders, and wooded swamps. At other times, it also frequents mangroves. In migration and winter, it uses a variety of wooded habitats, near water.
The bird gets it name from its thrush like appearance, it is beilved that they resemble spot-breasted thrushes (e.g., wood thrush and hermit thrush) from which they take their name.
No bigger then a water pipit the Northern waterthrush doesn't look or act much like other warblers, which typically are flitty, fast-moving birds. Perhaps as an adaptation to their ground-feeding habits, they are brown and white and streak-breasted and they walk about slowly on the ground, constantly bobbing their tails.
The fist recored Northern waterthrush was back in 1985 on St Agnes, Scilly's and the last one in the UK was recored in 2011 again on Scilly so it's been sometime since the last one.
The bird was relatively close and confiding, despite the large crowds of onlookers, the biggest issue was the weather, cold, freezing an dull, with grey clouds is was difficult to get a high resolution image. I'm not complaining, just always wanting better from my photos.
Good to see that 2024 is off to a great start, let's hope this is a first of many new ticks for the list this year and a good sign of things to come.
