Eye-browed Thrush just one of numerous rare birds that have brightened autumn 2026 at Spurn

                     

Eyebrowed Thrush - photo: Robert tdc/flickr via Wikimedia Commons

AN Eye-browed Thrush - only the second record for Yorkshire - has been one of the highlights of this year's autumn migration period at Spurn.

The bird was trapped and ringed in churchfield on Tuesday of last week (September 29) and seen several times later on the same day.

But, by the following day, it had apparently gone. 

Other end-of-September Spurn highlights included Little Bunting, American Golden Plover, Yellow-browed Warbler (as many as 18 on a single day), Firecrest, Ring Ouzel, Pied Flycatcher, Redstart, Lapland Bunting and Brambling.

October has also started well  with sightings that have included  Lesser Yellowlegs, Shorelark and Snow Bunting.

But back to the Eye-browed Thrush of which there are probably only about 30 or so UK records, mostly from islands such as The Scillies.

The other Yorkshire sighting was between April 16 -23, 1981, at Aldbrough, 12 miles north-east of Kingston-upon-Hull.

The very first British example of the species came  on October 5, 1964, when one turned up amidst an influx of Song Thrushes in the garden in Oundle, Northamptonshire, of Mrs Winifred Smith and son Martin.

It was variously feeding on yew berries and drinking or bathing at a garden pool.

Mother and son were gracious enough to allow experts into their home to identify  the bird through a window.

A forest species, the Eye-browed Thrush typically migrates from Siberia and Mongolia to China and South-east Asia where it spends winter.

                                            

Churchfield where Spurn's first Eye-browed Thrush was ringed