32
NAUMANN'S THRUSH IN CHINGFORD, E.4.
On 3rd February many birdwatchers 'flocked' to
a normally deserted part of Epping Forest
called Bluehouse Grove. This is a small
hornbeam coppice area bounded by house gardens
and two school playing fields.
As word spread on the 'twitcher' grapevine,
people from Norfolk sped to the area. By the
4th I spoke to some twitchers who had corne from
France to see the bird. Others were down from
Scotland. The cause of all this hurried
activity was the first ever recorded Naumann's
Thrush in Britain.
The Naumann's Thrush is the size of a song
thrush, has grey—brown plumage above with a
buff coloured stripe over the eye and a reddish
breast and tail. This bird was thought to
have been blown from Siberia by gales but later
it was that the bird had been seen
for some weeks but the information kept secret.
We were lucky enough to spot the bird later in
the week as it landed in the school playing
field. It chose to roost in a large fir tree
in the back garden of an adjoining house. A
large ginger and white cat made its way slowly
along the fence tops in the direction of the
tree but dropped down into the garden before
the thrush. The Naumann's Thrush was seen the
next day so all was well.
Probably more interesting than watching the
thrush was watching the birdwatchers. The
sight of up to one hundred twitchers of all