Winter Thrushes

During the recent spell of wet weather, the fields local to me have become pretty waterlogged. Moorhens have started to venture off their ponds and are wandering around these fields in search of food, as are the Grey Herons. At the weekend it was the turn of our winter thrushes to have a look and see what the wet ground had to offer, There muse have been rich pickings because there were hundreds of Redwings and a very good number of Fieldfares too. Add to that our local and migrant Blackbirds and Song Thrushes, it was quite a sight.

Clearly they have now finished off the crop of berries that they had been feasting on in recent weeks, and been forced to the ground. There must have been something good there as they were there all day, bar the odd flushing from trespassing dog walkers.

Redwing

More distant and nervous Fieldfares.

Patch Birding

Saturday started off misty and gloomy, but I still went out armed with the camera. This sort of weather is never conducive to nice pictures.
In the gloom, I picked out a pair of Mandarin ducks on my local flooded field. Initially I thought it may have been a Garganey, with the white over the eye, but as it swam out of the mist it was clear it was a male Mandarin. Never mind, a year tick all the same.

Female (left) and male Mandarin

There was a very vocal group of 75+ Fieldfares. I was surprised that they were still around, but pleased to see them once again before they head off to their breeding grounds in the north.

One of the most vocal birds of the morning was the Wren. They're very active at the moment and they make it easy to see them at this time of year. 

Fieldfare

Fieldfares had been pretty elusive for me in the last few months, until a few weeks ago when I went for a local walk at Woodford. I came across around 40 birds in a snow covered field. The berries on the trees had long been eaten and so the search for food was on the ground.
They are pretty flighty birds and are spooked easily. So this was a game of patience.
I had to wait and let them come to me. They duly obliged.

Winter Berries

I went in search of some reported Waxwings in Warrington the other day, but they didn't show up. There were plenty of berries on the trees for them, it was mighty cold and the light perfect. Typical that they didn't want to play.
A small consolation though, were the very good numbers of Fieldfares, Mistle Thrush and Redwings. Initially a bit wary, they soon settled down to give some really very good views.

Fieldfare

A very photogenic Redwing. Shame it wasn't a Waxwing though.

Winter Thrushes

I've had a couple of walks over this weekend. It was very cold on both days, but Saturday was grey, miserable and overcast. So no pictures on days like this. That said, I was mightily impressed by the numbers of winter thrushes that were on my patch in Woodford. It seemed as though every hedge, bush or tree had Fieldfares, Redwings or both in them.
So I returned today when the sun shone, and this time managed a few pictures. They were all so skittish though. Anything closer than 30 yards and they were off. So I turned to stealth mode. This meant I was stood close to, but not in, a hedge for quite some time, not moving. I was happy with the Fieldfare shots I got. Could have had a few less branches in front of it, but it's better than nothing.

Redwings were not so accommodating, and very flighty. This was taken at quite some distance.

Fieldfare

A lovely crisp cold morning and -5 showing on the thermometer. It was time to get myself back to Macclesfield Forest and the surrounding area. Lots of Goldcrests around the conifers and Blue Tits and Chaffinches flitting around. I managed to catch up with my first Fieldfares of this winter. I always look forward to our winter Thrushes arriving, and there were also plenty of Blackbirds around. Still waiting to see my first Redwing, but I'm sure it won't be long now before I catch up with one.

Back with a Bang. Norfolk

Having not done much birding of late, it was nice to go to Norfolk for a few days to really crack on with the year list. I wasn't left disappointed, with over 100 species seen in that time, and quite a number that I had never seen before.
The weather was pretty raw, with snow on the ground for the first day or two, followed by a real gusty wind after that. Still, it made it all the more interesting for me, and meant I got some decent shots.
Over the next few weeks I intend to share these with you. Just for starters though, here are a few taken on the first day when the snow was still down and the temperature was below freezing.

The lovely scene that met us on our arrival

It was nice to see some winter Thrushes, like this Fieldfare.