31/12/2016 Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire

Blue Rock Thrush: Here are the best of a bad bunch, after a three and a half hour wait in the dense fog and cold the bird finally put on a show and came out in the open, albeit hidden behind a bush.

This particular bird is dividing opinion regarding it's origin as to many people this may well be an escaped captive bird due to it's time of arrival, place of arrival and it's very odd behaviour.

For example this little chap seems more confiding than it's wild counterparts I have seen in Cyprus and Spain.

Other people think (and hope) it's a wild bird and can be tickable as it is an adult male and Blue Rock Thrush do migrate and it has been an exceptional Autumn for eastern vagrants.

If accepted by the powers that be it would make this bird the seventh sighting of the bird in the UK, after it was first spotted in 1985 and the most recent back in 2007.

There is an old twitching philosophie - 'if you see the bird then it's a legitimate wild bird, if you dip and don't see the bird then it must be an escapee'. Now I've seen it, I'm certainly hoping it gets accepted and would make a happy addition to my UK life list.