Back in mid-January, I mentioned the Siberian Rubythroat which had just been found in a Dutch garden, atttracting hundreds of admirers on its first day alone, all of whom had to file through the garden owner's living room to see the bird! Amazingly, but no doubt thanks to its daily helping of mealworms offered by the locals, the bird is still there. After two months of deliberation, therefore, and failing to convince myself that I could afford or even wanted to to make such a long trip for just one lifer, I finally had a weekend planned in Amsterdam and got to do my own pilgrimage to Hoogwoud, North-Holland. As you can see, I did get to see this northern jewel of a bird but it was by no means easy. After about 45 minutes of waiting, I detached myself from the small group of people, including some who had driven all the way from Hamburg and England, at one of its favourite patches of bushes to check out the second patch just around the corner and there it was, sitting up and scolding at an intruding cat. I had time to fire off just three pictures, before it dropped down into the bushes and out of sight. I quickly summoned the others and most people got very brief views of it skulking around in the undergrowth but it never showed like this again the whole time I was there. I would have liked to have been able to admire it a little longer but I was very pleased with the above photo, the red berries almost mirroring the colour of the ruby's throat.
