Spot a winter tree covered in berries and my reaction used to be, 'Ooh, that looks good for birds'. But if you think about it, it can't actually be that good if the birds haven't eaten them yet. Uneaten berries must be the plate of plain digestives next to the almost-empty plate of choccie ones; they are the sprouts of the Christmas dinner vegetable selection.
And so last week I decided to go for a spot of berry watching/photographing to see what leftover berries were still on the trees
Now it is quite possible that some trees and shrubs were still berry-laden because of their location - nice berries in a dangerous place are going to be an uneaten as nasty berries in a safe place.
But nevertheless I saw enough berries in enough places to feel confident to give you my current top three in the 'probably look better than they taste' category.
At Number 3: Rose hips. These (left) are almost certainly the big 'tomatoes' of Rosa rugosa, the Japanese Rose. But small uneaten hips were plentiful too
At Number 2: Pyracanthas. Yes, where a bush was trained up a house wall next to a front door you can imagine that birds are wary of visiting. But look at this succulent collection (right) in an ideal position for a Blackbird or Song Thrush, but with no takers.
And at Number 1: Cotoneasters. Trees, shrubs, ground cover - wherever I found cotoneasters I found berries. And perhaps the most frequent and the most berried was Cotoneaster horizontalis (left), the one with the herringbone stems that can crawl up a north-facing fence or over a wall.
So it was interesting to find one Blackbird munching determinedly into the uneaten cascades of cotoneaster berries. It seems that, when times get tough, even the sprouts of the berry-world begin to seem attractive.
If you want to drop by my RSPB wildlife gardening blog, it is updated every Friday, and I'd love to see you there - www.rspb.org.uk/community/blogs/hfw
I've found mahonia berries are loved by blackbirds in my garden. It was not my first choice of garden plant - more likely to be seen around parking lots! And not a UK plant either (I think). But then again - if the birds eat the berries, surely that is a good thing. But good old British ivy berries are also loved by wood pigeons, collard doves and blackbirds too - and they come out in the spring.