Fieldfare and redwing bonanza

At the top end of Stoodley Glen this afternoon there were uncountable numbers of fieldfares, redwings and starlings feeding on hawthorn and rowan berries. Uncountable because they filled the sky at times, wheeling round and coming back.

Also present were a kestrel, and right on the edge of Erringden Moor at 240 metres, blue and long-tailed tits.

We had gone up to look at one of Calderdale's few wild crabapple trees, to get a GPS fix on it for the Halfax Scientific Society botany group. My interest in ornitho-botany led me to speculate if the the small (1" - 2.5cm) apples might be eaten by birds to enable the tree to regenerate, but no sign of that. I think the tree's strategy is that small mammals might gather the fruit and store them away, after which some of the seeds might grow, as jays do with acorns.