Crimean War was still raging when Britain's 'first' Siberian Thrush was sighted - and shot - in Surrey

                                                           

The study of a pair of Siberian Thrushes in Gould's Birds of Europe

IF he had still been alive, this week's occurrence of a Siberian Thrush in Shetland would have intrigued a certain Mr Drewett of Surrey.

Back in February, 1855, at a time when the Crimean War was raging, he shot a female of this species at St Catherine's Hill, near Guildford in the county.

Some while after it had been stuffed and mounted, the bird ended up in the possession of Mr Bond.

It is the same specimen (to the right) that was subsequently depicted  in John Gould's masterwork Birds of Europe (1873).

Writes Gould: "It is certain that many birds have visited us of late years, both from the east and the west, which do not appear to have been known in the times of Gilbert White, Montague and Bewick."

The provenance of the Guildford bird belongs to history, and the first official British record of the species is the one that spent October 1-4, 1954, on the Isle of May.

Since then, there have been some 14 other records - most on islands off the Scottish mainland.

Discounting the Guildford bird, the first English record is of the male that was sighted in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Christmas Day in 1977.