Day 345/365: Hawthorn berry feast

[nanila]

Blackbird surrounded by hawthorn berry feast.


Redwing eating a hawthorn berry.

These were taken a little over a week ago. Between the blackbirds and the redwings, this bush has been nearly stripped of its berries. I'm glad we didn't trim our hedges back earlier in the autumn.

(with apologies to those subscribed to common_nature who will see this twice; no energy for multiple post content, sorry)

Comments

[ursajoanna]

Beautiful!

[nanila]

Thank you!

[worlds_of_smoke]

oooh, how neat. :D

[nanila]

Yes! I'm glad I made the effort to take these photos when I did, as the hedgerows are completely bare now.

[darkemeralds]

What lovely, wintry pictures!

[nanila]

Thank you! The redwings are so pretty, but also quite elusive.

[davidgillon]

Had a flock of redwings descend on the bush in my front garden last winter. First time I remember seeing them in town. You managed to get much better shots than I did!

[nanila]

They're very skittish - much warier than blackbirds - so hard to capture!

[alatefeline]

This made my day. These are so very, very lovely. I want to put them on holiday cards! No need to apologize to me for posting them twice, :)

[nanila]

Aw, thank you. I'm glad you enjoyed them. <3

[wohali]

There is a series of about 15 hawthorn trees (at least, I'm fairly sure that's what they are) over by the start of the green belt walkway near our home. The birds generally avoid the berries until the bitter cold of winter, then suddenly discover them and devour them over the course of a couple of days.

Usually it's robins; the other birds continue to avoid them.

Nice picture!

[nanila]

Thanks! Yes, it's not until there is really very little food left around that the birds start to pay attention to the hawthorn berries.

We badly need to get more food for our feeders - another job for the weekend.

[cmcmck]

Fabulous shot!

[nanila]

Aw, thank you!