Missile Thrush

This isn't one of my better photos so far this year, and it probably won't be the worst either, but I'm blipping it as I've been trying to get a photo of this bird since early January.  It's a mistle thrush in his larder (or a missile thrush as the Autocorrect would have it) in a garden opposite our house.

He's been aggressively protecting this crop of orange Sorbus berries against all comers, greedily saving them for himself.  He's not in the little tree all the time, but clearly he's not far away, since if anything lands in his larder, he appears very quickly and shoos them off while rattling noisily.

He's lucky it's not a good waxwing year, for if a flock descended on the tree, he would be outnumbered and his crop would soon be gone.  Also those other pillagers from Scandinavia, the redwings and fieldfares, tend not to come into the gardens here unless the weather is too severe for them out in the fields.  So, he may get to enjoy them all himself.

Aggressive he may be, but the sight of me with a camera is enough to send him scooting away.  Today I used the car as a hide and parked opposite his tree.