Winter thrushes and other birds

I said yesterday that I would update you on the birds we had seen over Christmas. On Christmas Day morning, I noticed a lot of big thrushes sitting in a tree in a neighbouring backgreen and flying over our roof. We then went out into our backgreen and found over 50 fieldfares sitting in the trees and flying back and forth. I've never seen so many anywhere, and in Edinburgh I've felt lucky to see any at all, as they're not really an urban bird. Later that morning we wandered over to Princes Street Gardens, which were full of redwings (see photos, taken by Crafty green Boyfriend, the building in the photos is Edinburgh Castle, click on them to see a bigger view). These are another thrush species and I've often seen them in Edinburgh parks, but never this many - there were hundreds, flying across the gardens, landing in rowan trees and stripping them of their berries (they did a good job as you can tell from the first photo!).

We also saw a very large flock of long tailed tits along the Water of Leith. They're a beautiful bird, that I've seen in much bigger numbers in the last couple of years than I used to. As we stood still to watch them, they fluttered towards us, chattering away under their breath....