I made this film of the Mistle thrush in the snow.
During the short days of January I noticed the mistle thrush spending more time in the berry bush. As the weather hardened, and the snow began, the thrush took up residence in the tree, resting, hiding, craning upwards to see what was flying over, and about once every half hour having a handy snack of berries. Every day I noticed that there were fewer berries left to eat, and the mistle thrush had to move further and further down the branches to reach them, so that eventually they were not possible to reach without overbalancing and flying to snatch them in mid air. Occasionally they jay would sneak into the centre of the tree and hide there, surprising the thrush, who then had to fly down onto the ground or into a nearly tree to wait for it to go. The bush next to the berry tree is covered in berries, but no bird want to eat these. Finally there were just a smattering of berries at the very far extremities of the thin branches and then the snow fell and smothered the berries with a thick unappetising layer of freezing crystals. That day I only saw the mistle thrush once, a golden fluttering into the tree from the corner of my eye, and then I saw it no more.
not at home 