Black-throated beauty!!

After hearing from the bird information services and seeing Dave Mansell's excellent photographs,Chris,Dave,Nige and myself headed for North Yorkshire to see the reported first winter female Black-throated Thrush in its chosen garden in the village of Newholm,which was situated about 2 miles west of Whitby.When we left home it was cloudy,but by the time we reached Newholm it was pissing it down to say the least!.Thankfully the bird,was found within minutes of us arriving,in it's chosen garden,feeding on hand outs from the kind owners.She put on a great show,being observed down to 40 feet,what a way to see a lovely rarity like this,it was just a shame about the awful weather,but it can't always be sunny when we are out and when it is a new bird,like it was for me,you have to make the effort!.After watching this cracker,the rain was just too much and i headed back to the car to write some notes on my first new bird of the year.After watching the B.t.Thrush we made the descision to bird from the car as much as possible for the remainder of the day,visiting firstly,Hackness lake to look for the resident Mandarins,but sadly we couldn't locate any and had to make do with 2 female Goosander,next it was onto Forge valley feeding station,where we enjoyed views of Marsh Tit and the superb Nuthatche's.After this,it was then onto Scarborough,stopping at post 54 on marine drive to say hello to the resident pair of Perg's which were huddled on the cliff trying to shelter out of the incessant rain!,also observed here was a single Fulmar.After this,our last stop was Holbeck car park for the wintering Med Gull's which put on a great show as usual,with 5 birds being seen today,3 adults and 2 2nd winter's,2 of the adults being ringed,also here passing by over the sea,where 8 White-fronted Geese,which flew south,a good record. After all this rain,enough was enough and we began our journey home a little sodden,but an enjoyable day all the same with some great company.