Country diary: Fieldfares perch as if awaiting instruction

Sandy, Bedfordshire: These birds are gregarious, exuberant, highly mobile chatterers, riding out over our grounded troublesThe first big blows of north-easterlies brought down fieldfares from Scandinavia with snow on their wings and beaks sharpened in frost and ice. Their redwing cousins seeped into Britain all through the autumn, but fieldfares are true winter thrushes, best served up chilled to the British countryside. At the tail end of November, a fellow birder in Lancashire emailed me a reply - "redwings yes, fieldfares none". I missed their calls, those endearing rattles that remind me of customers passing through a faulty turnstile.And now, carried in by cold winds, they're back, chack-a-chack, bouncing across the field in a straggly flock maybe 50-strong, self-choreographing into the topmost branches of a rowan. Silhouetted against the sky, they adopt an identical stance, pointing due north, stuck all over the tree like so many Christmas baubles. Motionless and now mute - they scarcely speak when still - the fieldfares perch as if awaiting instruction. Continue reading...