I, like many of you are feeding my garden birds in this cold weather.  Living close to the sea, we have a great deal of seagulls and crows which keep the smaller birds away.
This week I have noticed a strange bird - it is larger than a thrush but smaller than a pigeon.  It is mainly shades of grey with a creamy belly.  I have seen up to four of them in both ours and a neighbours garden.
Any ides?

Could it be a fieldfare?

Oh, yes I think it is.  Yours is a much better picture than on RSPB site - I've been going through and that is one I found.  Just seen one in garden but by time I'd got camera, it had gone again!  According to them, they will come into gardens in severe weather, so I think it must be.

Fieldfares are very striking looking birds with a rather masculine looking appearance.  Some look more like small birds of prey in colouring.  When feeding and moving around they often adopt a more angled posture so their wings seem obviously pointed at the sides.

We get fieldfares and redwing (both from the Thrush family) in quite large numbers during winter - I keep the fallen apples in piles under our trees to feed them, and they love the crab apples that remain on the trees.  Although they are commonly seen in flocks around the fields and hedges I've found we are more likely to see them as singles in the garden.  If you keep a lookout however you may find others lurking nearby.  The fieldfares in our garden will feed and forage alongside the blackbirds and thrushes.  Put fruit out in you want to attract them - lovely birds

Another option is that you have a thrush from Scandinavia.  They usually overwinter here but some are moving on looking for warmer climes!  The Scandinavian birds are more grey than the thrushes you'd usually see in this country.

what a lovely bird the fieldfare is, very unlikely to see it in the northwest I would imagine ...talking of seagulls they are so cheeky , each day I put food out  along with thier nuts and the seagulls circle until they get low enough to chase off all the other birds and steal the food ....I  let the dogs out which quickly chases them away,if I shoo them away and they just ignore me!! ( have rarely seen seagulls in this area they are usually nearer the Mersey)

We have a story where I worked about the seagulls. A couple of years ago during some windy weather it was noticed during lunch break (I work in a secondary school) that the seagulls that always appear in large numbers for the snadwich pickings had vanished. Within 15 mins of this with school back in session so no one in the playground a tremendous gusts of wind took the rooves of all one side of the school and sent them crashing down in the playground and around the fields. Fortunately no one was hurt and the saying now is "always watch the seagulls they know something is going to happen "  As an extra to animals intuition at the same time the caretakers gsd had also refused to go out on his usual afternoon walk

There are a lot of thrushes about here at the moment - definitely saw a Redwing yesterday - however they do seem to be slow and dopey in the cold weather.  I was out early yesterday morning and there was one just sitting in the middle of the road (this was about 6.15) and another flew right across in front of me and I barely missed it - and I was only doing 20 miles an hour.

I think these birds are Fieldfares as the have a creamy inverted 'V' on their breasts.  They are beautiful birds, only seen the one again today eating the hips off my roses.  Will put some fruit out for them tomorrow hoping they will come back and seagulls stay away!

> definitely saw a Redwing yesterday - however they do seem to be slow and dopey in the cold weather.

I saw two redwings feeding in my next dorr neighbours bushes, there is no way they could have been described as slow and dopey! They were going through it like a couple of mad things. :-D

Can you put dried fruit out for them?

> Can you put dried fruit out for them?

Yes but it's recommended to soak it first.  Always soak in the summer because of chicks but it's a good idea in this weather also as most of their normal water sources are frozen.

I took a picture of a Fieldfare in our garden yesterday - PM if you want a look as I've no earthly idea how to put one in a place everyone can see!

Interesting bit on birds this morning Radio 4 - they said that a lot of birds are struggling to take on board enough food so they are coming down onto the roads where the snow and ice has been melted by the salt looking for food.  Because they are weaker they can't fly so fast to get out of the way of cars.  They were talking about how many small birds we will loose as a result of the bad weather.  They also mentioned the fieldfares as being bullies and driving our native birds away from any bushes that may have berries.