Unexpectedly news of a Taiga Flycatcher came out on Thursday and it hung around while today, so thankfully managed to catch up with either it (or another) as it would appear that it cant be distinguished from the bird that first appeared some 20 days ago.

The day dawned breezy and not very bright, initial hopes were subdued as it hadn’t appeared up until 9am.

Compensation at the time was by way of a nice red-flanked bluetail- not the sought after rarity that it once was but very nice all the same.

News broke that the Taiga Flycatcher was showing in the gulley and given the orientation I chose to go round to the east side on the basis that the light was better. This proved to be a bad move as it was obviously showing judging by all of the activity on the opposite bank, but was frustratingly out of view from where I was standing.

It wasn’ long before it flew up into the canopy and it remained faithful to a tall ash tree for most of the morning and into the afternoon.

I flitted between the red-flanked bluetail and the Taiga Flycatcher until well into the afternoon-the RFB getting most of my attention.

The light was never great so all images are at ISO 6400.

It was a cracking late Autumn day, not a lot of other birds around but the two that were there more than made up for the lack of quantity.