Rock Thrush

Way back in May 1995 I had a memorable day in Norfolk twitching a superb male Rock Thrush at Holme. I spent a couple of hours with it from about five in the morning, before spending the rest of the day elsewhere, but it was so good that I went back that evening for seconds.
There haven't been many since, and of the 28 records, only two since have really been available-one for five days on Scilly in 1996 and a two day female at Spurn in 2013. As Colin wasn't available for the Holme bird, I was surprised at his lack of enthusiasm about my suggestion of going for the Spurn bird, but I think he had decided he would only go for something  more colourful.
He was rather keen when I phoned on Friday to tell him that there was a nice male bird at that well known Mediterranean bird attractor of the hills north of Blaenavon in south Wales (many hundreds went to see the Marmora's Warbler there in 2010).
We arrived around 1030, and managed to find a parking spot on the narrow lane at Pwll Du right by the start of the footpath to the quarries, and we quickly unpacked and joined the constant stream of birders. The forecast had been for a warm sunny day, and I was rather unhappy to find that it was rather cold, very windy and drizzly at times-I only had my fleece on. I had also brought my Nikon slr, Zeiss lenses and filters expecting to get some nice landscapes but decided to leave them in the car due to the poor light. I took the 500mm, converters and the GX8, and Colin took my scope.
When I got to the bird, it was showing on scree beyond the quarry but quickly flew off before popping up briefly again and then dropped out of view. After about twenty minutes most of us headed off in the direction it had flown, where we found a small group watching it at fairly close range. It put on a good show for us actively feeding on beetles, and seemed to be very curious about the assembled crowd, peering down at us intently.

Apart from the Rock Thrush, there were a couple of Wheaters, lots of Rock Pipits, a couple of Red Kites, some Nuthatches  and Jackdaws. We spent some time around the quarry as there were three Ring Ouzels present, but they proved to be very elusive though I and one or two others had distant 'Blackbirds' flying over the hill top which we presumed to be Ouzels.

Unfortunately we weren't all that familiar with the birding sites of South Wales apart from the Forest of Dean, so we thought about scenery as I had brought all the gear with me. Colin found Tintern Abbey after a quick search, but when we got there, the light was awful as were the crowds so we thought we'd come home via Westonbirt Arboretum. This was a bit of a mistake as the car park was virtually overflowing by early afternoon-it really needs to be avoided at weekends, so we decided not to go in.