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!
Large flocks of noisy (in the positive sense) thrushes in the garden this morning. A flock of a 100 or so fieldfares (gråtrost) and a few redwings (rødvingetrost), song heard again today, were feeding on rowan berries, most of the birds lifting at the end of this video. At the same time there was visible migration happening. I counted a continuous stream of some 200 birds in 10 minutes moving westwards! A few waxwings (sidensvans) have also arrived. Yes, rowans are a must have in the garden although I don’t use them much myself.
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!
Oystercatchers (tjeld) are one of the first spring migrants to arrive here and early March is the normal time. I was woken up by the characteristic piping call of these birds this morning!
An eagle also suddenly appeared right outside the window where I sit, no more than 30m away…but it was all over in a flash and it was gone……
Here’s a distant shot of the newly arrived Oystercatcher lovers ready for the excitement ahead!
Velvet scoter (sjøorre) numbers are building up as the herring are beginning to spawn in the fjord (the spawn is an important food source in spring) and one of the biggest flocks in the country with up to a thousand birds gather for the annual feast gather in the part of the fjord I see from my house, before departing for the breeding grounds. A small flock of 8 birds were feeding below the house today.Treecreeper (trekryper) in the gardenA fieldfare (gråtrost) getting more and more brave as I move the apples gradually closer to the house!
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
