Dion Art, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Have you been hearing a beautiful burst of birdsong early in the morning, despite being in the depths of the winter season? Elan Valley Trust Ecologist, Fiona Gomersall, sheds some light on this phenomenon.
Most of us are perhaps more familiar with the blackbird and song thrush. Blackbirds Turdus merula have adapted well to changes in land use and are as common in urban gardens as they are in the wider countryside. Their song is one of the most beautiful amongst British birds. The song thrush Turdus turdus is less common but is also known for its characterful vocalisations, having an impressive repertoire with its song made up of multiple parts, each short phrase repeated two or three times. A tell-tale sign of song thrush presence in your garden is an ‘anvil’, a large stone where the thrush smashes open the shells of snails to get to the soft body inside.
Most of us are perhaps more familiar with the blackbird and song thrush. Blackbirds Turdus merula have adapted well to changes in land use and are as common in urban gardens as they are in the wider countryside. Their song is one of the most beautiful amongst British birds. The song thrush Turdus turdus is less common but is also known for its characterful vocalisations, having an impressive repertoire with its song made up of multiple parts, each short phrase repeated two or three times. A tell-tale sign of song thrush presence in your garden is an ‘anvil’, a large stone where the thrush smashes open the shells of snails to get to the soft body inside.
Similar to the song thrush but ‘greyer’ in colour and larger, with a loud, rattling call is the mistle thrush Turdus viscivorus. This thrush gets its name from its liking for the fruit of mistletoe Viscum album – after eating the seeds the thrush will wipe the sticky residue off its bill onto the tree’s bark and in this way and through bird droppings, the mistletoe is spread from tree to tree. Sadly, this thrush is in serious decline and on the UK Birds of Conservation Concern Red List.
Writing about thrushes came to me in December when a song thrush was daily, calling loudly from a tree near the EVT office garden. It felt as if spring had arrived early, but the thrush was establishing its territory which is normal behaviour for this time of year.
Since October, you may have observed other thrushes; redwings Turdus iliacus and fieldfares Turdus pilaris which are our winter visitors from northern Europe. The redwing has a rusty-red flash on the underwings and flanks and a bright white stripe over its eye. Fieldfares are more chunky, with a grey head, lower-back and rump, chestnut upper-back and wings and a black tail. They are noisy birds, making excited, ‘chack-chack’ calls. These two thrushes often move around in large flocks, landing in newly mucked fields or on rowan and hawthorn bushes, devouring berries and invertebrates before moving on together to find new food sources.
The ring ouzel Turdus torquatus or mountain blackbird, another member of the thrush family is far less common and has disappeared from many of its upland sites where it would breed in springtime after its long flight from Africa. Males have black plumage and a striking white breast band. This species once bred in Cwm Elan, but now only visits us in the autumn on its way south, feeding in worm-rich pastures and on berries. During the Elan Links HLF project, farms in the valley mucked their improved pastures well and planted scattered hawthorn and rowan to encourage the ring ouzel to stay and breed. Some of these trees are now producing berries and so we wonder if our ring ouzels might return one day.
The RSPB website has excellent photos images and further information on all of these thrushes: rspb.org.uk
Fiona Gomersall, Elan Valley Trust Ecologist
