How many berries?

November 11th 2016

Ripe Rowan Berries. Photo D. Haines
Ripe Rowan Berries. Photo D. Haines

Given the huge influx of winter thrushes this year I wondered just how many berries might be available to them.

One of the smaller rowan trees in my garden, which will be 50+ years old, measures 7m tall, 5m across and has a trunk 25cm in diameter. On 10th November 2016 I counted 800+ clumps of berries on this tree and a sample of 5 clumps yielded 280 berries weighing 97gm. In round figures then the total crop of berries on that tree could be 44800, weighing around 16kg!

All measurements, other than the count and weight of the sample, are approximations, but that is still a lot of food for fieldfares and redwings, given the large number of rowans in Assynt (think of a number!).

Ian M. Evans

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Recent Sightings

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c20 birds on garden trees, Drumbeg (Nancy Millar) (17/01)

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