Fieldfare - 1894

Turdus pilaris

A common winter visitor.

In severe weather great numbers of Fieldfares used to appear in our neighbourhood. They seemed to be quite as susceptible to the cold as the Redwings. One very long-protracted frost, when the ground was deeply covered with snow, we caught and brought numbers of the starving birds into our kitchen; but it was all in vain we offered them various kinds of food; none of them ever survived longer than a fortnight.

Flocks of Fieldfares have remained with us until the end of April, when they were much tamer than they were during the winter, and, collecting on the tops of the trees, would keep up a not unpleasing chattering. We consider that in the north of the county Fieldfares were every winter more plentiful than Redwings, the mountain character of the district being unsuited to the latter birds.

Mathew M.A. 1894, Birds of Pembrokeshire and it's Islands