30 Days Wild day 7- Mistle thrush

One of my best friends from home is spending the summer in America, so I went to see her today before she leaves. On the way back, I heard a bird moving in one of the cherry trees planted along the side of the roads. Peering up through the leaves showed a distinctive shape and speckling. It was a mistle thrush.

Mistle thrushes are one of my favourite birds, ever since I spent a Saturday morning at the wildlife hospital at which I volunteered with a fledgling demanding food at ever more frequent intervals. They're similar to song thrushes, but a little paler, with a very different song. Looking back, I don't think I've seen a mistle thrush for at least the past year, perhaps longer. This probably isn't surprising. They've had significant population and range declines in the UK over the second half of the 20th century, and are in decline throughout their range as a whole, despite being classified as 'least concern'. Once, seeing one of these birds would have been nothing remarkable. Now it's something special, and something worth noting.