A walk down to the garden centre to replenish supplies for my bird feeders turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as I walked out into the car park I could see a small flock of birds in one of the fruit trees. Fieldfares, so intent on their feeding they seemed unperturbed by passers-by.
These winter Thrushs are difficult to get near for a decent photograph usally for me, they seem to take flight the second you come into their view on most occasions.
As the " Beast from the East " takes its icy grip of the countryside these must have been desperate to get at the last remaining fruits on the garden centre trees. Not sure what the fruits were, possibly a type of "crab apple" or "Cherry apple" The Fieldfares were desperate to get at them.
I rushed home for my camera and quickly returned to the car park, they were still there, I parked up in a suitable position, not to close so as to interrupt their feeding.
I noticed the next day as I took my dog out for its early morning walk, even more Fieldfare had arrived into the local area, you could clearly see the birds scouring through the gardens looking for berries and fruit.
Their favoured food source is usally ground invertebrates, but as the ground becomes frozen, as in this case, they search for berries and fruit.
These will be returning to their breeding grounds very soon, late March ,early April , so it was nice to catch up with them one more time before they depart the country.
Does anyone know what these fruit/berries are, about the size of a cherry. ?
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