Cool autumn weather stimulates several species of bird to sing in autumn, giving a feeling that spring is in the air for us as well! This morning it was about +3C and with a thick woolly jumper I ate breakfast in the garden and I was sung to first by a wren (gjerdesmett) and then a large group of noisy thrushes landed, mostly fieldfares (gråtrost), but a few Eurasian redwings (rødvingetrost) were also present and at least one can be heard singing in this clip!
Fieldfares (gråtrost) don’t breed in the garden but nearby. After the breeding season, a few forage for the first berries in the garden. Saskatoons / søtmispel (Amelanchier spp.) are the first and in order that I get some too (to dry) I net at least one of the trees:
Here’s a fieldfare alarming…probably a cat lurking in the undergrowth!
Let it snow, let it snow!
Had expected rain today, but heavy wet snow instead…put out apples for the thrushes this morning and a small flock of fieldfares accepted the invitation!
Fieldfares (gråtrost) only take fruit, whereas blackbirds and robins seem to largely ignore apples and eat other crumbs. They defend their apples against other fieldfares. I have currently one bird on each side of the garden.
1. Blackbird (svarttrost) and great spotted woodpecker (flaggspett)
2. Bullfinches (male and female; dompap) on plum buds (not too happy with this), there were 8 birds altogether….hopefully they won’t do too much damage… :(
I always dreamed of working in a botanical garden and somehow my wish has come true only 7 months after retiring from job as an ocean wave climatologist!
Even better, I can come and go as I wish (more or less)…I now have an office where I will be able to document and tend (in summer) my onion garden, as visiting researcher :)
WOW!
…and the staff are lovely people too :)
090118: Wren foraging and joined by a second bird120118: It’s quite a few years I’ve seen two-barred crossbill (båndkorsnebb), but then I’ve never deliberately sought them out at Ringve Botanical Garden in Trondheim which, because of its collection of conifers, is one of the best places to see this species, the less common of the 3 crossbills here…only one female with a single common or parrot crossbill…
090118: Wrens (gjerdesmett):
120118: What are these redpolls (gråsisik) feeding on?:
120118: Magpie (skjære):
120118: Dark red squirrel (ekorn):
090118: Fieldfare:
090118: Blackbird under Ribes alpinum
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden