On 2013-04-08 10:53:36 +0100, echinosum said:

'Sacha[_10_ Wrote:
;979956']That said, the mistle thrush alarm call is more like a night
jar than the fieldfare alarm call.

I'm assuming! But it would be quite a coincidence. In fact, when I went

hunting round the bird call sites, I did think a nightjar was most
similar, other than the small fact of this bird being active throughout

the day.
Fieldfares and mistlethrushes are well known blackbird-sized odd noise
makers, and in cold weather mistlethrushes tend to be seen in places
they are not usually seen. At a glance, mistlethrush looks generally
brown like a thrush or a Mrs Blackbird. Fieldfare looks generally
grey.

snip

I might have caught a glimpse of the mistlethrush this morning but I'm
not certain because it's too far away to see clearly on a claggy day.
I do hope I'm right though. What we have also noticed is that the rooks
are coming down onto the lawn where the bird feeders hang and picking
up dropped seed and peanuts. This is unusual for them but they seem to
be hungry and I'm assuming that their usual sources of food are lacking
because of the cold weather. A bonus is that yesterday morning I saw a
song thrush close to the house. We know that they often nest on that
side of the place, so with luck we've got a family, or will have!
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk