Mistle Thrush defending a Holly Bush

The Mistle Thrush is a reasonably common bird in Devon but I have to say, it's not easy to photograph nor for that matter seen as often as you would think, by me at least and I can only speak of my own experiences. It's particularly alert in my opinion and will fly to a respectable distance as soon as you get within camera range, in fact I have rarely had the chance to get a good photo of one. We did have one in our garden a few winters ago when in fact, we had all the UK thrush species in the garden (apart from Ring Ouzel) in the space of a few hours, it was frosty and cold and the birds must have been really suffering. Heres a link to that day on Jan 8, 2010.

Today, at last the rain and wind stopped, the sky was bereft of cloud and it was about as gloriously bright and blue as it could possibly be. I had to get out there and any self respecting wildlife enthusiast would too, and no doubt already were! We have some beautiful coniferous woodland nearby and I thought this would be a good place to go today, it would be quieter for sure. Quieter than some of the more "trendy" spots and after my unpleasant last visit to the noisy hide at Bowling Green the last time we had a sunny day, well lets just say I have learnt my lesson. When I got to the edge of the woods, the air was full of bird song as though all the birds were just as pleased as me to have some sunshine and I guess spring is on the way and birds are already starting to think about pairing up. I sat back on a bank overlooking the woodland opposite which was fringed with laurel and holly. I could hear a Mistle Thrush and then I watched a pair that were defending the few berries remaining on one holly bush. I have read that Mistle Thrush defend a food source but I have never seen it before. Blackbirds and Squirrels were trying to feed on the berries but the Mistles were having none of it. I took a few photos but couldn't get close enough to get really good photos. I plan to go back with some cover so I can photograph some interesting behaviour.

As I walked back to the car there was quite a commotion coming from the top os a pine tree and when I fixed my Sigma 500 lens on the protagonists I could see clearly that it was a nice flock of Siskins feeding by extracting the seeds from the cones. It was good to see but I have to confess that I had hoped it was going to be a flock of Crossbills which it could quite easy have been.

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