So it was with the White's Thrush that quite remarkably appeared on Holy Island on Wednesday this week.
It was perched low in willow trees at the end of the Straight Lonnen when I saw it. The sun was catching the rich rufous tones of the wing coverts and highlighting the small gold coloured spots on the crown. The bold chevrons on the breast and belly seemed to line up into elegant sinuous curves as it preened and turned.
This was a species I had no expectation of ever seeing without spending some time on Fair Isle or Shetland. Even having traveled in various parts of the east where they occur I had never previously managed to see one.
Even the leg colour was attractive - quite a striking pink.
It remained on Holy Island for the rest of that day but was not seen again.
The bird was named after Gilbert White because the first British record of the species was shot in Hampshire in 1828 not too far from Selborne where he famously lived. It was named by Thomas Eyton and described in his History of the Rarer British Birds of 1836 - he was unaware that the species had already been described in Europe and earlier from India. He noted "... in memory of the one with whom everybody is familiar by name , the late Gilbert White, author of "The Natural History of Selborne ", a work which has and will afford many hours amusement and instruction to hundreds, and is deservedly classed among our standard books on British natural; history. "
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