Fieldfares and a Woodpecker

This last week or so I have been out and about with the camera. It has been a dry week for a change with mostly cloudy conditions and a brisk easterly wind.The previous week gave more sun and was ideal for photographing fieldfares.These Scandanavian thrushes come to Britain in the wintertime to feast on the berry crop.This years crop has been particularly abundant and fieldfares have been present in very large numbers.

I concentrated on the Over Wyre area and on some of the quieter lanes in the area the fieldfares were present in large numbers.The hedgerows were filled with abundant berries as can be seen in the images below and the fieldfares descended in large numbers to feast in the afternoon sun.Fieldfares can be difficult to photograph as they are very skittish and not easy to approach.I found one hedgerow bordering a quiet road which the birds were coming to at regular intervals and I was able to get some nice images from the comfort of the car without disturbing the birds.

A very nice surprise was the visit of a great spotted woodpecker to a tree close to where the fieldfares were feeding.I made the most of this opportunity and was very pleased with the resulting images one of which heads this post.Hope you enjoy my efforts below and next time I will be showing images of barn owls which were also very active during the last week.Thanks for looking in.