Still looking for a Song Thrush

One of the sad geeky thing birders do is to keep a list of bird species they have seen for regions or periods. Mark and myself are keeping a list for his visit with 76 species the score to beat from the equivalent visit two years ago. Today was horrible weather and we have struggled. Gale force NW winds and driving rain have kept any sensible bird out of the way. By 3:30 pm we had got to 56 species and were thinking of the obvious species we had yet to catch up with. Song Thrush was the most obvious.
A trip to the local RSPB reserve at Balranald had produced nothing new and we were distinctly soggy at the edges and planning to go home. Driving back from the end of the reserve a bird flashed across in front of the car and perched to the left. t I thought might be the elusive Song Thrush, Mark thought a pipit so we stopped. It was visible, just, in the gloom and not far from the car but after a few seconds disappeared over a ridge. We were left uncertain of what we had seen. It started raining harder and we thought of driving on but there again we probably should try and find that Thrush to make it 57.
We got out and followed where the bird had disappeared into a depression in the sand dunes. Within a few minutes we had found it and our problems started. It wasn't a Song Thrush. Our thoughts went pretty quickly to some form of American Thrush but we couldn't really believe it.
Binoculars, telescopes and camera were misting up and the rain got worse as did the light. Everything looked very grey and blurred. We snapped off a few images including the one above. As you can see the bird itself was not in the greatest of shapes itself being very bedraggled. Not a surprise as we were increasingly certain that it had just flown all the way across the Atlantic.
A quick look at the photos and a bird book in the dry of the car led us to a species called a Hermit Thrush. Worryingly rare, it had only been seen in Britain nine times previously ever - birders like train spotters keep horribly precise records.
We had to get someone else to see it so a phone call to a local birder left me leaving him a message and hoping he would get it. Thirty minutes later he arrived and agreed with our identification and some of the pressure was off. We left as it got almost dark but of course the internet was down at home so we had to go to one of the local hotels to put out the news which we duly did - at the same time as entertaining or being entertained by a travelling French story teller that my wife had introduced to us as we arrived at the hotel.
I imagine a few birders will turn up tomorrow to see if it is still there.