There have been lots of fieldfares around the fields hereabouts but I’d not seen them in our garden before today. I snapped these two in our apple tree with a Canon 20D (at 200mm zoom) from my office window. There were two others nearby. At first, I thought they were redwings, very similar, but a closer look and a quick Google revealed them to be fieldfares. They’re winter visitors from Scandinavia, Turdus pilaris, cousins of the thrush and blackbird. Their patterned chests presumably the inspiration for Sarah Lund’s cableknit sweaters in multipart Scandinoir TV drama The Killing.
Not the sharpest bird photo ever but I like the composition (if only I could have moved a twig or two out of the way). It’s quite noisy too as I had the ISO up at 1600 to compensate for early morning grey and snowy (lack of) light.
