Winter Thrushes

I had a walk around the Meadows yesterday in search of winter thrushes. There has been a big movement of Scandinavian birds over the UK in the last few days, so its quite likely that some have turned up on the Meadows. Sure enough there were about 10 Redwings a Fieldfare and far more Blackbirds than usual. All these were in the central hedge which is full of berries. The old hedge is an invaluable source of food for wintering birds and needs to be preserved as long as possible. Even the dead parts of the hedge are important as they are home to countless insects that the birds can easily get at. Over the next few weeks the number of wintering thrushes should increase on the Meadows as the food supply should last well into next year. Redwings tend to be most numerous at this location, but migrant Blackbirds and Fieldfares are also usually present in good numbers.
Other birds on the Meadows yesterday were Nuthatch, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Long-tailed Tit, Blue Tit and Great Tit.