A rouzely rouse

It’s a funny ol’ game this ‘self-finding’ lark.  I’ve been struggling to add much to my tally of late, mostly because of the cool north winds keeping stuff from arriving.  So when six Ring Ouzels were seen at Pegsdon I popped along there in the evening to take a look myself.

After wandering around without much to show for my efforts I stood pondering what to do next on the edge of ‘Chack Valley’.  After a few minutes I hear the soft distinctive scalding of Ring Ouzel – thinking it was in the bushes near me I back away slowly.  After a few minutes more I hear it again and realise its coming from across the valley from some scrub.  I put my bins up to be greeted with a spanking male Rouzel atop a hawthorn.  After only a few seconds a shower of black and white shoot through my bins as a Buzzard piles in to the trees above the bird I was watching scattering more Rouzelage that were hidden deep in the bushes above – there seemed to me more than six!

After the Buzzard moves on, I decide to walk round to a better vantage point on the opposite side of the valley.  After a long wait the Rouzels eventually pop out and fly across to the sunny side of the valley to feed.  I count them – 1,2,3,4,5,6 – excellent, I’ve got them all.  Hold on a minute, there is another one, and another, and another!  Nine Ring Ouzels all bouncing round the sunny slope together – fabulous.

So it would appear I’ve ‘found’ three extras.  But have I?  I receive an email from an anonymous source (let’s call him Randy Whimsey) calling in to question my ‘finding’ of these three extras – “how to you know they weren’t some of the previous six” he comments.  My only reply to that is “how do you know they’re not new in”?