Mistle Thrush

 Walking back through the churchyard last week after taking the photos of various houses I spotted this fella sitting on a gravestone. This is at full zoom and as I tried to get closer he hopped onto another stone further away.

I've seen him hopping about in the lower half of the burial ground before but to be close enough to get a photo was a treat.

I looked in my book  'A Sparrows Life as Sweet as Ours'  to see Carrie Ackroyds Illustration and to read

the facing page about them by John McEwen. McEwen says that The Mistle Thrush (Turdus viscivorus, 'mistletoe gorger') was given it's name  in the C17 by Sir Thomas Browne.

It's local name in some places is 'Stormcock' as it is known to sing from a treetop whatever the weather from November through to June.

Raising his voice as the gusts still roared

A speckled Mistle thrush told me clear,

That harvest was garnered, that apples were stored,

That summer was ended, that autumn was here.

from Stormcock by Bill Humphries

Back Tomorrow

Sue