Boxing Day

The first chance this Christmas to get out – on a lovely bright but mild day. A walk along Greenhills Lane was depressingly birdless with a small flock of Long-tailed Tits, Buzzard, Kestrel and Sparrowhawk the only birds of note.

I later went down to the apple trees near the waterworks where my wife had seen some thrushes feeding. Around twenty Fieldfares were here…

Interesting watching the different feeding strategies, the Fieldfares were in first.
Once the apples had been opened up the Starlings would move in…

And then later the smaller passerines including tits, Chaffinches, Goldfinches, Robins and more surprisingly this…

That means this White-eye has survived the cold for at least a fortnight.

A number of Blackbirds were also here but they fed exclusively on fruit on the ground whilst the Jackdaws only went for fruit small enough to be carried away.