Weatherwise Felts " We are going to have more hard
weather, the felts are in such numbers," someone said to me the other day. 'I he " felts " of course, as I realised only after an interval, are the fieldfares, sometimes also called blue thrushes, who journey spasmodically southwards in winter. No bird is better known to the countryman, who often is vague enough about the identity of visiting birds. It is very vocal. The chuckle of the flocks is a proper accompaniment of the winter scene. It is very salient. The snowy ground beside a favourite thorn bush will be trodden solid by the feet of the birds and will be ruddied by bits of berries, the crumbs.of the feast. No bird is certainly more directly influenced by weather in its migra- tions. The harder the weather the more fieldfares we see in Southern England. Yet perhaps that lesser and more delicate thrush, the redwing, is more directly affected by cold. It is certainly more often a victim. Both birds are in plenty. So are woodcock, golden plover, and green plover, all of which fly from northerly weather to the kindlier south and west.
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