Morning Point, St Mary's - Blue Rock Thrush!!

I put my eggs in one basket today after yesterday's Cuckoo moment, could the same happen again but with the elusive Blue Rock Thrush?? I decided to patiently stake out the section between Morning Point and Woolpack battery... eventually with a couple of seconds of success!

And a second later...

I think it was worth it?

Garrison, St. Marys - Blue Rock Thrush

My third attempt for the particularly elusive Blue Rock Thrush hoping to improve on the brief sighting on Thursday! It was the issue in being in the wrong place at the wrong time once more but eventually after walking the whole length of the Garrision (twice) a stake out near Morning Point at least provided some record shots!

Having seen it pop up on a rock throught the bins, I sensed it was moments away from departure?  In fact it was about three seconds roughly!

Take off...

Going...

Going...

Gone!

Stow-on-the-Wold - Blue Rock Thrush!!

The 'whatever' Blue Rock Thrush... Whatever the origins it was a cracking bird in brilliant sunshine! For most of the day, 'unobliging', skulking' and certainly giving the feel of a wild bird, then even when it did show well it wasn't for long! The 100's off birders who gathered in the confined estate today, were certainly endorsing it's credentials!

I'd spoken with Ian Grant the previous day and we both had reservations based on the 'rumours' about it's origin? With the morning starting to tick by, we both decided there was no evidence it wasn't a tickable bird and eventually hit the road...

We got parked immediately in the nearby 'pay and display' and after the 5 minutes walk to the residential area, it was showing on arrival!! And just in case I give the mistaken idea that it strutted feather detail to order, this was the sort of view it gave for the vast majority of the time...

"It's flying"; a frequent cry...

... and good news when it chose to perch lower down :-)

It took over an hour before my angst at only securing record shots turned to a smile as it posed low down on the first storey of this house!

And the blue plumage seemed to shine even brighter when not against the sky - even gutter worked nicely!

Nearly all of these images are from a magic couple of minutes when it showed it's socks or should I say clean feet off - no evidence of cage damage...

The was the closest approach and I remember thinking - it's going to fly?

And fly it did, but not out of view, landing on top of one of the driveway conifers less than 10m away!!

It didn't stay there for long and I wasn't the only one to get this amazing view :-)

Initially thought to be (by some) to be a presumed escape, it's an adult male - looking the business and I'm soooo glad we made the effort... 'whatever'...