Drab,sunless and cold winter days can certainly be enlivened by the appearance of a flock of redwings, (pictured) a fieldfare or two, a mistlethrush and blackbirds all homing in on berry bushes.

As winter progresses and food becomes increasingly scarce, last autumn's bountiful berry harvest really comes into its own.

Birds instinctively leave berries alone until the new year but with colder weather forecast, our winter thrushes will become even more active.

In Bushy park, mistletoe abounds as it does around Hampton Court and Claremont gardens in Surrey. Oddly perhaps, Richmond park has barely any.

In Bushy, a hawthorn tree by the lake was stripped of mistletoe berries before Christmas by a pair of mistlethrushes that spend many hours gorging berries in that tree and adjoining trees so they are unlikely to starve!

Two tall trees near my garden that I call my 'redwing trees' play host to a flock of the birds most days. They scan surrounding areas from a height and suddenly swoop down as one to feast on a range of berries.

Another favoured haunt of redwings is at Wisley where they can be seen on grassy areas searching for worms and invertebrates and are a delight to watch.