Ring Ouzels

[Munty_Hunter]

About ten weeks ago I was up on the shoot where I keeper and noticed some unusual birds as i crossed a grass field that was being left for hay. There were about 30-40 hen birds which looked very similar to a female Fieldfair and about 10 what i presumed were cocks which were like a blackbird with a smal white bib. I asked around as I was struggling to ID them in books or online but no one new and i started to question myself.
Then a few days ago i saw them in a magazine and they are Ring Ouzels and i felt great relief to know that my eyes hadn't deceived me. Anyhow i wondered how many people had seen these birds and in what circumstances and regularity.

 

[bogtrotter]

See them regularly, but that is in the hills,they are an upland bird closely related to blackbirds.

Have never seen them on low ground , and never knew they frequented your part of the world,hopefully someone will be able to provide an answer to your question.

​I will watch with interest.

 

[david1976]

There were loads of them on an estate I used to keeper on near Amulree. One foreign guest shot one claiming he thought it was a grouse!!!
​

 

[Edchef]

They are relatively easy to see on passage in the spring on high ground here in Shropshire - A few pairs breed here on an area called 'The Long Mynd' ( or used to)
Incidentally if this was a birding forum I would have been shot at dawn for giving away a breeding area
They are generally in decline in Britain
​Ed

 

[bogtrotter]

Just looked it up they are summer visitors (which I knew) from the Mediterranean (which I didn't) what you saw was obviously new arrivals on their way north, most nest on the Scottish hills , with a few isolated sites elsewhere.

 

[Edchef]

They over winter in Spain and North Africa - The Atlas Mountains in Morocco being a favoured site
An excellent place to see them is North Norfolk in the spring when they fly in off the sea
I have also seen them in several places in North Wales and in The Lake District

 

[Munty_Hunter]

I suspect they are one of the many migrants that are shot by the Europeans on their migration.