Tim writes: Grandalas (Grandala coelicolor) are one of the most beautiful birds I have ever seen. The males are an electric blue colour with jet-black wings and tail, while the females are brown and scaly with a white wing bar. They breed high in the Himalayas (c4000-5500m), way above the tree line but in winter they gather in large flocks to feed on berries at lower elevations (mainly 3000-4000m). In this case they were feeding on Sea Buckthorn (Hippopaea rhamnoides), which is native to the Himalayas, as well as the coasts of Europe. The white cotton-wool balls are Clematis (Old Man’s Beard) which was sprawling over the Buckthorn bushes. This flock was at least 3000 strong, but they were constantly on the move, flying up to pylon wires, then nervously descending to feed. After about an hour, the entire flock had dwindled to nothing, and we never saw any again on the entire trip. But that hour with them was a fantastic experience that will stay with me forever. I photographed them on the lower slopes of Balang Mountain in Sichuan, China, at an elevation of about 3500m. They are currently placed in the Thrush family and are about the size of a Starling.
What a stunning looking bird! Clearly that was a magical hour or so that you spent watching them. On a much more mundane level my wife and I were walking along a little track bounded on each side by overgrown, heavily berried hawthorns this afternoon and enjoyed watching large numbers of fieldfares and redwings feeding on the berries. There is a particular pleasure, I think, in watching flocks of birds.