Dead Easy Dusky with no Irritation

A planned trip with Paul, Dave and Brendan. We had arranged to meet at 05:00 which is about an hour earlier than usual. Unusually for us we didn't have a pre-planned destination. So it came in very handy when Brendan switched his pager on and one of the messages from late on Friday evening was a Dusky Thrush in Margate Cemetery. So we set the sat-nav and off we went, arriving about 06:40. At first the bird proved a little elusive but soon showed well on and off as it did a circuit of the cemetery. Rather than follow the bird we waited for it to arrive in it's favoured area. I did take a couple of pics but as usual the light was quite poor. Always a good idea to get the excuses in early!
From Margate we headed over to nearby Reculver. Here we enjoyed nice scope views of female/ringtail Montagu's Harrier.
No news of the Red-backed Shrike, so we headed over to Stodmarsh. Not far from the car park we connected with Turtle Dove (4). A walk around the reserve where we did not connect with the North Hide. Near the river we heard a Nightingale but could not make visual contact.
News of the Red-backed Shrike at Reculver had us scuttling back to Chambers Wall. Unfortunately after walking several miles we did not find the Shrike. Lots of other birders also looking but no joy.
Cattle Egret at Shorne was our final target bird. After a slight detour due to the postcode supplied straddling both sides of the railway line we eventually arrived at Shorne. We marched along the track for quite some distance before we saw the rather distant Cattle Egret. Lots of familiar faces on the walk to and from the Egret.

Dusky Thrush-Margate Cemetery

Dusky Thrush-Margate Cemetery