Red-flanked Bluetail

that tail!

The Red-flanked Bluetail that I got to see all too briefly on Thursday was looked for by a handful of birders on Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning but it was not until Sunday afternoon that the big guns were brought in and Knut Waagan refound it. After this all the local twitchers also got off their sofas and got to see it so a lot of people, including me, have a lot to thank Andreas and Knut for.

I went down this morning in absolutely fantastic weather with the Beast in tow and planned to give the bird an hour although with a cloudless night and also the first frost of the autumn I expected it to have done a bunk. Instead of walking around looking for it I decided to position myself and wait for it to come to me as reports yesterday had suggested it followed a fairly regular circuit around the area. After 45 minutes, during which time I had only seen two Blackbirds and a Chiffchaff, a movement (in fact I first saw the shadow) low down in a tree caused me to raise my bins and there it was! It was in a hurry though and efforts to get a photo all ended in failures until I managed one long range shot. There were three of us looking for the bird and we were able to half follow it through the undergrowth and it became apparent it was moving towards the path we were stood on. We stood back and then suddenly it was out feeding on the path. For maybe 20 seconds we had it at around 10 meters range until a runner scared it into some trees. I even managed a couple of in focus shots although the Beast was pulling on the leash so easy it was not.

Water Rails and a Kingfisher were calling from the bay at Koksa and on the way back to the car I put up my first Jack Snipe of the year so a very good morning was had 😊

Red-flanked Bluetail (blåstjert) feeding on a leafy path

and the flanks are indeed red

Spot the birdy. I though this was the picture I would have to be happy with

Jack Snipe (kvartbekkasin) - the type of photo one usually gets of this species after it flies up from between your legs and you then fumble with the camera