Waxwing - photograph by Tony Fox
An email popped up in my Inbox from Tony this morning, with this photograph attached. Better than most emails I receive. This was one of the 13 birds he had seen this morning at Alton Water just to the east of Larch Wood. I can only assume that these were the same birds as those that were up by the cafe last week. It was 2pm when I had the opportunity to cycle down to see if they were still around. Two o'clock on a grey and bitter-cold winter afternoon is never a great time to go looking for passerines, but Waxwings are normally a fairly obliging bird. I pulled up next to where I had seen the Smew last week (see earlier blog post). The little inlet was tight with duck (Teal, Wigeon, Shoveler) and a lone Redshank yodelled his disapproval at my appearance. I waited a minute, as I was surrounded by bush upon bush of Wild Rose which where brim full of berries. I am accustomed to seeing Rose bushes thinly scattered in hedgerows, this is more of a forest of roses. I made a mental note to come and enjoy the site in June when the bushes would be in flower. Things didn't seem too promising, given the general murk, gloom and cold, but after a moment my ears picked up on the briefest of trilling notes - or was it my head wanting to hear them? A couple of minutes passed and another brief trill. For the life of me, I couldn't see any in the bushes, which were all obligingly growing at head height. Then it occurred to me to try looking up! Sure enough, there they were sat in a willow tree. Perhaps they had been laughing at me, rather than calling to each other. They weren't all feeding at once, one or two would take it turns to descend for or a berry or two or take a drink from a puddle. I can't recall seeing a grounded Waxwing before - they are even more beautiful when you see them on the deck.
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