Fieldfare bill of fare

      The mountains of windfalls in one of the orchards is providing masses of food for the winter visitors from Scandinavia. There are hundreds of fieldfares around and redwings too, when you walk through the orchard the sentries in the tops of the trees see you, sound the alarm, and up goes a flock of hundreds along with resident blackbirds and thrushes.
      Another cold spell will see them ripping into the remaining windfalls and then they'll move on to pastures new. The hawthorn bushes have been stripped of berries and all of the crab apples have gone too but there is still a good supply of apples for the time being. Amazingly there are still some Golden Delicious hanging on the trees despite the high winds.
       No wonder it's such a good winter holiday destination for our friends from Scandinavia.