Redwing

I have had Redwings feeding in my garden for the last few weeks. Who would have though that one holly tree could supply so much food? The Redwing is our smallest thrush species, it looks a little bit like a Song Thrush but when you get a good enough view you can see the red flanks and the creamy white eye stripe and then you know immediately what you are looking at. They arive in the autumn from the continent and spend the next 5 or 6 months with us. When the going gets tough they move in to the suburbs to feed on the berries of ornimental garden shrubs and this is when you will get your best opportunity to see them close up. They seem to prefer Rowan, Holly and Cotoneaster....probably in that order, in fact in my experience they ignore the cotoneaster until everything else has gone. As you can see, they also take apple, usually windfalls. I put this apple half on my lawn just to see if they would come to it and the obvious answer is yes! I was really pleased to see this one on my lawn today after I had been away up norgh for the last week.