was it really December 2009 -- Siberian Stonechat in Notts

never really did these record shots justice -- just looking through for some comparative material and came across the files so worked them up a bit -- December 23rd 2009 a very very cold day at -4C with snow on the ground -- male Siberian Stonechat , Notts

Siberian Stonechat 2nd of the autumn

after a few hundred hours of slog we actually found a rare bird yesterday in the late afternoon arrival at Donna Nook; this fine Siberian Stonechat appears to be a maura and a first year male from the black underwing coverts but is the rump pattern OK for maura?

Siberian Stonechat Donna Nook

I have included all the terrible, small and OOF images to assist any assessment of race of this bird; it was one of the most flighty and least approachable stonechats I have ever seen -- in the field the distinctly deep orange rump was particularly noticeable and immediately suggested something other than the paler maura that we had seen in the past though I did have a bird like tis at Donna Nook in early November 1980 that I always considered to be probably Stejnegeri - I have to repeat that the majority of these shots are very small in the frame, heavily cropped and therefore do not show great detail -the longest two uppertail coverts appear to have narrow black shaft streaks - comparing the perched shot with the bird looking towards the camera with the 1cy male in Martin Garner's Autumn Challenge series page 127 there are some close similarities -- any comments welcome

Siberian Stonechat

made the sometimes slippy journey today for this lovely little chat -- hope it survives the frosts but must be touch and go for all insectivores