*SCOTTISH BIRDS (29) TXT AW - The Scottish Ornithologists' Club

Birding in ScotlandScottish BirdsPlate 61. Black-throated Thrush, Isle of Bute, February 2007 © Phil Kirkham.Black-throated Thrush, Isle of Bute,January–March 2007R. FORRESTERMcMillan’s kitchen window, although it oftendisappeared for long periods of time. AlthoughI was keen to release the news, there wereobvious access difficulties, as the garden couldnot be viewed from a public right of way andIna McMillan did not want a continual string ofbirders in her kitchen. I discussed the situationwith Angus Murray of Birdline Scotland and itwas agreed that information could be releasedlate on Sunday 28 January, thus avoiding apossible large influx of birders over theweekend. There was public access to an openarea of ground 40m to the rear of Elmlea andthe initial announcement on Birdline Scotlandadvised that the bird might possibly beviewable from there, but Elmlea was notpublicised as the exact location where the birdhad been seen. The bird was seen on theMonday by visiting birders and over the nexttwo months at least 200–300 birders visitedthe island and saw the bird, which continued tofrequent Elmlea, but probably spent more timein a large garden to the rear and which wasBirding in Scotlandpartly visible from the public right of way.Visiting birders all behaved very well and noneof the residents voiced any complaints. In factit proved an excellent public relations exercise,with Ina McMillan very generously invitingmany birders to view from her kitchen window.The bird was last seen on 26 March.DescriptionThe bird was similar in size and structure toCommon Blackbird, a species often nearby fordirect comparison. It was fairly uniform greybrownabove, with light edging to tertials andcoverts. The underparts had a light grey washwith dark flecking, particularly on flanks. Thethroat and upper breast feathers were blackwith pale edging, giving a ‘scalloped’appearance. There was a yellow base to thelower mandible, with the rest of the billblackish. Dark legs. Dark eye.Ron Forrester, The Gables, Eastlands Road,Rothesay, Isle of Bute PA20 9JZ.Ina McMillan who lives at Elmlea, Minister’sBrae, Rothesay on the Isle of Bute feeds birdsin her garden each day. She knows the regularspecies, but does not claim in any way to haveany expert knowledge of birds. On 18 January2007 she saw an unfamiliar bird in her gardenthat she could not name, although shebelieved it to be a species of thrush. As shecould not find it in her book of garden birds,she visited the local library, which by chancehad a copy of Simms’ Thrushes, from whichshe identified the bird as a Black-throatedThrush Turdus ruficollis.There was some disbelief of her claim by theinitial persons she contacted, but fortunatelyher insistence and persistence paid off. It wasnot until the evening of 23 January that shecontacted a local birdwatcher, Ian Hopkins, andhe visited her house early the next day. Seeingthe bird briefly and believing that the identificationwas correct, he telephoned me andasked if I would check it out to confirm identification.I arrived at her house and saw the birdfor 2–3 minutes at 10:15hrs at a distance of10m when it was perched in a Eucryphia tree.Identification was straightforward and easilyconfirmed as a 1st-winter male Black-throatedThrush. I saw the bird again on 25 and 26January at distances down to 25ft (8 m),although it proved elusive and was only visiblefor 2–3 minutes on each occasion.Up to that time the bird had only been seen inthe small garden of Elmlea, a mid-terracedhouse and it had only been viewed from InaPlate 62. Black-throated Thrush, Isle of Bute, February 2007 © Tom Marshall.72Scottish Birds 29:1 (2009) 29:1 (2009)Scottish Birds 73