Country life
: Starling by David Kilbey
By Bob Chapman , Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
74 www . visitilife . comwPhoto
Our wintry feathered friends
Many birds are currently visiting the UK from the colder north and east of Europe , enjoy our relatively mild winters .
Thrushes like redwings and the higher ground of northern and surrounding countries . blackbirds do not like snow
England head south and lower Here we at the Wildlife Trust set covered ground and arrive from ground for more hospitable winter out some of our winter feathered Scandinavia along with flocks of weather . friends you ’ re likely to see while out starlings and bramblings .
Blackcaps tend visit us from the and about . Pied wagtails from Scotland and south-east – many from Germany
Starling generalist feeders and visit bird tables , seek scraps in towns and probe for invertebrates in grasslands . Although very familiar , starlings are now nowhere near as common as they were . In winter , they can
Blackbird still be seen in huge flocks as they gather roost Whatever the season , you can nearly always see a at dusk . Thousands , even tens of thousands , may blackbird . Many birds stay here all year , but in autumn roost together in reedbeds or on structures such as there is an influx from the east . Visiting birds often piers . Their plumage is bejewelled with spots adding join flocks of redwings and fieldfares to feed on to the glossy sheen of their black feathers . They are hawthorn and holly berries or eat fallen apples .