Fieldfare 7 November 2020 Frost and a dawn of soft, warm colour.
I know where to find berried shrubs on Scout Scar and I'm always alert for winter thrush. The whitebeam crop has failed this year, so hawthorn will be the attraction. A bird's white belly gleamed in the sun. A lone fieldfare. Its throat and breast cloaked in warm pattern, a flush of pure gold then radiant white. You might think plumage would absorb light but this luminous heart of white shone forth The head grey, the under-side of the tail shows dark.
A sole fieldfare on a hawthorn, no more all morning. The sun was warm and the day rather misty
I know where to find berried shrubs on Scout Scar and I'm always alert for winter thrush. The whitebeam crop has failed this year, so hawthorn will be the attraction. A bird's white belly gleamed in the sun. A lone fieldfare. Its throat and breast cloaked in warm pattern, a flush of pure gold then radiant white. You might think plumage would absorb light but this luminous heart of white shone forth The head grey, the under-side of the tail shows dark.
A sole fieldfare on a hawthorn, no more all morning. The sun was warm and the day rather misty
I love fieldfare and each autumn I'm eager to discover more. Each time the experience is unique. Trawling my archive, I came upon this bird which I photographed on 19 November 2019. Once again, a fieldfare seeking hawthorn berries. And in the same cluster of bushes. This bird was busy feeding and, in doing so, revealed different aspects of its behaviour and plumage. Hawthorn is berries and thorns, as the name tells. The shrub can offer good cover for birds, with its dense tangle of contorted branches with long thorns and lichen.
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