Tag Archives: svarttrost

Waxwings on apples

October 20, 2023 Stephen Barstow 1 Comment

Waxwings (sidensvans) have arrived here in numbers with about 70 in the garden today! Most of their favourite berry, rowan (rogn) had gone by the time they arrived due to the large flocks of thrushes that were here a week ago (mainly fieldfares, redwings and blackbirds / gråtrost, rødvingetrost og svarttrost). They had opened up quite a few apples near the tops of the trees before they moved on, and now the waxwings are enjoying them – they luckily don’t try to open other apples, so that there are still many for us! We’ve been harvesting the last few days, but still a lot near the tops of the trees that are difficult to reach even with the apple picker!

Birds

Fieldfare migration

October 15, 2020 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

With Covid a long way from being over, I’m wishing I was a bird! We probably won’t be visiting family in the UK this winter and this morning there were some 50 fieldfares (gråtrost) and a few redwings and blackbirds feeding on rowan berries in the garden and above I could witness thousands of thrushes passing the house towards west. On some autumn days thrushes will stream past all day in the same direction, maybe following the fjord. The weather chart shows perfect flying conditions with light north easterly winds between Norway and the UK, so I’m thinking these are bound where I can’t go…

Birds

Blackbird

April 7, 2020 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Nice to wake up to a blackbird (svarttrost)in full song this morning. The first week in April is pretty much always when they start singing here!

A great tit (kjøttmeis) can also be heard. There are at least 3 territories in the garden and surrounding gardens this year.
Also this week, curlews (storspove) have started singing in the bay and highlight of the week was a goldfinch (stillits) singing in the garden. It moved around and sang in the 3 different places…sadly, it didn’t return yesterday. It seems that goldfinches have started colonising this area as a breeding bird with single breeding records the last 3 years.

Berries, Birds, Fruit

Thrush invasion

October 19, 2019 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Unusually large numbers of thrushes, mainly fieldfare (gråtrost), redwings (rødvingetrost) and a few blackbirds (svarttrost) in the garden at the moment, mainly on the rowans (wild and planted for the birds) and apples (need to harvest earlier than normal this year).
This year is a bumper year for rowans near the fjord, but poor a little inland due probably to frosts which didn’t affect us! Late frost at the time of fruit flowering iis very unusual where I am near the fjord (due to a combination of warmth from the fjord and the fact that there isn’t night at this time!). This has concentrated thrushes near the fjord where the food is!

Thrush invasion

Blackbird on apples

2. Redwing and fieldfares on rowan

3. Fieldfare on rowan (this tree was more or less stripped of berries during the day)

Berries, Birds, Trees

Yew berry year and the vine

October 18, 2019 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

There are an enormous number of yew berries on the tree next to the kitchen window this year and this video shows how a vine (probably Vitis coignetiae) has found its way towards the light high up in the yew, which is Taxus × media “Hicksii”, the Anglojap or Hicks’ yew, which is a hybrid of Taxus baccata and Taxus cuspidata.
Most will be left for the birds, bringing both waxwings (sidensvans) and blackbirds (svarttrost) close to the house!

Birds

Blackbird greeting

February 13, 2019 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Blackbirds (svarttrost) are still shy forest birds here, so I was surprised that this one came to greet me this morning right outside my home office!

Birds

27th January birds in the garden

January 27, 2018 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Blue tit (blåmeis) singing

Jackdaws (kaie) resting

Female blackbird (svarttrost)

Birds

Robin and Blackbird

January 15, 2018 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

Both of these thrushes, European robin (rødstrupe) and blackbird (svarttrost) overwinter in small numbers, mainly in the lowlands here.

Birds

More birds in the garden; 5th January 2018

January 6, 2018 Stephen Barstow Leave a comment

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… :(