Cold Weather Birding over Christmas Break - Austria

We went to Kitzbuhel to ski, but one day we were looking out the window we suddenly saw Eurasian Blackbirds in our backyard. Then they flew away but returned an hour later. They kept coming back, so we went to the store and got bird seed. Then we sprinkled it in our backyard. We only had to wait 5 minutes before the birds came. That's when I got some of these pictures, like the European Robin with his beak open, for example.  

Then we went to Schonbrunn Palace for a winter bird count for Bird life Osterreiech.  We got on and rode the subway until the fifth stop.  The Palace garden was enormous.!  And, as a bonus, It was a downpour, but with snow! By the time we got to the woods my sister was frozen because of how long it took to get from the entrance of the Palace to the woods where our bird count was going to take place.  When we approached the woods we entered a steep gravel hill that went all the way to the top of the Palace grounds and gave a great view of Vienna.  On our way up the hill we heard a distant drumming sound like a jackhammer furiously pounding on an endless hollow tree trunk.  After what seemed like forever, we finally saw the Syrian Woodpecker who was searching for insects and I managed to take a few pictures of him which you can see below.  

On our walk up the hill, we also noticed a bustling feeder that had lots of bird action.  Flittering between the bushes and the feeder were Blue Tits, many Great Tits and another Syrian Woodpecker.  On our way down the hill we saw a Eurasian Blackbird hopping to his nest and not flying to his nest because up in the air it is colder than close /on the ground.  When we finally finished our bird count we warmed up in the Palace cafe with some hot chocolate.  

Click on a picture to see a full-page gallery of the photos.