Blue Rock Thrush
Yesterday, as we were visiting a relative, news came over of a Blue Rock Thrush which is widespread in Europe and Asia. As soon as we were in the car, I got as much information as possible. As sometimes can happen, twitchers can turn against a bird. First, it had a droopy wing, then the wing was OK but a foot was deformed.
My parents and older sister Ayesha had seen the one on the Isles of Scilly in 1999, a twitch which I had heard about many times! The last twitchable bird was in 2000, which was before I was born.
Looking at the images en-route, the bird looked fine and so we decided to twitch it the next day. We arrived home at 1 am and so were not up at dawn. It was in Stow-on-the-Wold in Gloucestershire, which was only 1 1/2 hours from home. A very short journey compared to some others we’d made in the past.
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| Blue Rock Thrush Stow-in-the-Wold Taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
It was a cold but sunny morning and we watched the first-year male Blue Rock Thrush for a couple of hours and it was a lovely bird and looked in good condition. There was nothing at all wrong with the wing and certainly, I couldn’t see anything wrong with the foot. They occur in Asia and as it had arrived with other Asian birds and was fly-catching both added to its credentials.
It was really nice to see another new bird in Britain and my British list is now at 466.
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| Blue Rock Thrush Stow-in-the-Wold Taken by young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig |
About The Author
Hi, I’m Dr. Mya-Rose Craig. I am a 19-year-old prominent British-Bangladeshi ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster. At age 11 I started the popular blog Birdgirl, and at age 17 I became the youngest person to see half of the birds in the world.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.
Lyrical, poignant and insightful.’ - Margaret Atwood
This is my story; a journey defined by my love for these extraordinary creatures. Because large or small, brown, patterned or jewelled, there is something about birds that makes us, even for just moments at a time, lift our eyes away from our lives and up to the skies.