Five thrush species seen this morning, though still waiting for the first Ring Ouzel here, to make it six. It's been months since I've seen a Song Thrush, and now they're clucking discreetly in the undergrowth again. One I saw yesterday was paler, greyer than the others - an immigrant from the continent that must have come in with the Redwings and Fieldfares. Mistle Thrushes are very evident, bounding from perch to perch and rattling from the treetops. It occurred to me that they are probably scolding, not me but the Fieldfares. These are starting to arrive in numbers and pinch berries from hollies and hawthorns that the Mistles must consider to be within their own territories. The new arrivals have no concern for such distinctions, and are streaming through the valley raiding berries wherever they go, accompanied by churred complaints.
This time last year unprecedented numbers of Fieldfares were present here - thousands gorging on the superabundant rowan berries. This year the rowan crop is almost non-existent (perhaps the trees are spent and need a year to recover after all that seed production) and the Fieldfare arrival is more measured. Thirty or so moved through this morning, with smaller numbers of Redwings and a few Blackbirds and Song Thrushes attached to the group. I always enjoy the arrival of the winter thrushes, and this morning the flashes of silver, chestnut, white and rufous among the sunlit branches, together with the wheezes and chackles of the Fieldfares, was deeply satisfying.
