It was Felix who first noticed that there seemed to be a lot of rather unfamiliar birds congregating in our neighbour’s tree. He duly grabbed our “Spotting Birds” book and decided they were Fieldfare. As it happens, our friend Mike Kendall (who only lives 200m away as the crow/fieldfare flies) made a similar observation on facebook a little later… but also added that he’d just seen a mixed flock of redwings and fieldfares. I’m absolutely useless on birds, but took these pics of the lot near us (up to, say, twenty of them gathering together on occasions?)… I THINK they’re Fieldfare, but would be grateful if someone could clarify please?
PS: the RSPB website says that Fieldfare “may come into gardens in severe winters when snow covers the countryside” but also say that Redwings “often joins with flocks of fieldfares”!
PPS: it does seem slightly unreal for me to be talking about birds... I saw a kingfisher for the first time in my life last week! I REALLY hope this doesn’t mean I’ll suddenly become a fan of Bill Oddie (aaargh!).
PS: the RSPB website says that Fieldfare “may come into gardens in severe winters when snow covers the countryside” but also say that Redwings “often joins with flocks of fieldfares”!
PPS: it does seem slightly unreal for me to be talking about birds... I saw a kingfisher for the first time in my life last week! I REALLY hope this doesn’t mean I’ll suddenly become a fan of Bill Oddie (aaargh!).
3 comments:
It's ok, Bill Oddie isn't a bird - you don't have to like him
according to my "birds in your garden" booklet (FREE from rspb!) it could be a fieldfare (and if it is, it will like eating your apple cores!) or it also looks like the illustration of a mistle thrush, but they're meant to be quite shy. There you go!
xxx
Hi Steve, Redwings have a definite orange tinge, under the wing, I came very close to some Redwings today eating berries in a bush at Greville Smyth. I've enjoyed feeding new visitors to the garden this past few days, song and mistle thrushes amongst them. Alas no mistle thrush today though, so hoping he's ok! stu
Post a Comment