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Tag Archives: winter thrushes

Farewell, Fieldfares

20 Saturday Feb 2021

Posted by sconzani in birds

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Fieldfare, spring migration, winter thrushes

Now that the cold-weather ‘Beast from the East’, a freezing Arctic blast, has passed and been replaced with much milder temperatures, the birds have decided it’s spring.

210220 fieldfare (1)

This week I’ve heard Song thrushes and Blackbirds belting out their tunes from the treetops, Dunnocks singing from the bushes, male Greenfinches wheezing a welcome to prospective mates, and Skylarks songflighting above the local farm fields, which is all wonderful, but it also means the thrushes that have been over-wintering in Britain will be heading back to their breeding grounds.

210220 fieldfare (2)

These Fieldfares are probably the last I’ll see, until the winter thrushes return again later in the year. They may already have started their long flight back east, to the Scandinavian peninsula, Finland or northwest Russia, according to the BTO website.

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352/366 Winter travellers

17 Thursday Dec 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, winter

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Fieldfare, Redwing, winter thrushes

When winter begins to tighten its deadly grip on the world’s northernmost latitudes, food gets scarce and many birds either flee south or face starvation.

201217 fieldfare

Fieldfares come chack-chack-chacking all the way across the North Sea from Scandinavia, some even further, from the desolate snowbound plains of Siberia.

201217 redwing

Some Redwings also fly across the North Sea, though most of those we see in Britain have come south from Iceland. Seeing and hearing these gorgeous birds is one of winter’s highlights for me.

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42/366 Redwings

11 Tuesday Feb 2020

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, winter

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birding, birdwatching, British birds, Cardiff parks, Redwing, Turdus iliacus, winter thrushes

Today’s walk around some of central Cardiff’s lovely parks was peppered with light hail showers but that worked in my favour because it meant there weren’t many other people out walking and so the birds weren’t as disturbed as they might have been. And that meant I was able to get quite close to some of the large flocks of Redwings that were grazing on the grassy meadows and playing fields. What handsome birds these winter visitors are, with their distinctive pale face stripes, their rusty flanks and their ‘tseep tseep’ calls.

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336/365 Birds and berries

02 Monday Dec 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature, plants, winter

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autumn berries, birding, birds eating berries, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, Fieldfare, Mistle thrush, Redwing, Song thrush, winter thrushes, Woodpigeon

It’s only been a few weeks since I saw my first winter thrushes of the season but now they’re everywhere, feasting on autumn’s bounty of lush, delicious berries. Song and Mistle thrushes, Blackbirds, Redwings and Fieldfares and, not a thrush, the Woodpigeons are also indulging in the berry-fest. The Redwings are particularly skittish but I’ve managed to sneak up on a few to grab photos, though, more often than not, the whole tree I’m trying to approach will suddenly erupt with birds flying off in all directions. And then I feel a little guilty about interrupting their repast.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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