Monday 20th.December 2010

Only managed a short time out today , either side of midday , with the temperature still around -4C , and feeling even colder than that . Again I visited the berry laden trees that had produced so little yesterday , and almost immediately found a Fieldfare , gorging on the berries of a Rowan on the edge of the pavement . By the time I pulled over and got the camera out , it had disappeared , but I thought it was the bird I could see sitting on the ridge of a nearby roof . But with binoculars , I could see that is wasn't the Fieldfare , but it's relation , a Mistle Thrush . I slowly drove up the road towards the bridleway , only to find another Mistle Thrush , posing in the milky sunshine . All the other berried trees that I looked at , produced just Starlings , Blackbirds and Woodpigeons , until I reached a heavily laden Holly , just inside the front garden of a house . I had looked at the tree yesterday , and was surprised at the time that it only had a Blackbird and a Woodpigeon feeding on it , when the berries looked well ripe , and after Rowan , seem to be very popular with the Thrushes . I saw a couple of birds fly out as I approached , so pulled over on the other side of the road and waited . There was a lot of feeding movement on the house side of the tree , with berries constantly falling onto the snow covered front garden . Birds came and went with regularity , but always from the other side . Eventually , the odd Redwing landed on my side of the tree , usually momentarily, before diving into the middle to start feeding . If the light was better early in the morning , before traffic and people started moving about , they just might be less nervous , and not look as if they were just about to depart . One particular bird landed on the side of the tree , and had to stretch for it's preferred berry , which needed some wing flapping to compensate , giving another shot of the 'red wing' . With all the water frozen , it was interesting to watch this particular bird , washing down the berries that it had consumed , with snow , before getting rid of the waste matter , onto the houseowner's car , which was parked directly underneath the Holly , and rapidly changing colour . I have also watched Chaffinches in the garden doing the same , that is eating snow , not redecorating my car .

The only other interest was a couple of passes by a male Sparrowhawk , probably eying up the Redwings , but both times driven off by the local Corvids .