Snow on 1 December 2023 ' What's that bird with a crest on its head?' asked Kate. I knew it was waxwing without seeing it, so made the daft decision to rush back home for binoculars. Reckless when you have a very new knee and it's your first day out on crutches. We returned too late, the bird had flown.
We scoured the area and my scouts told me three waxwing had been seen gorging on yellow rowan berries. For the next ten days we searched but could not find them. Then the snow came. It looked lovely but snow followed by ice and heavy rain put paid to my venturing forth for the first ten days of December.
One Boxing Day I stood in wellingtons in the snow beneath this birch tree and listened to twenty five waxwing chattering in its branches in the fog. They roosted there, safe in its high branches.
We scoured the area and my scouts told me three waxwing had been seen gorging on yellow rowan berries. For the next ten days we searched but could not find them. Then the snow came. It looked lovely but snow followed by ice and heavy rain put paid to my venturing forth for the first ten days of December.
One Boxing Day I stood in wellingtons in the snow beneath this birch tree and listened to twenty five waxwing chattering in its branches in the fog. They roosted there, safe in its high branches.
Waxwing are not nervous birds but they can be elusive. This is a good year for a waxwing 'irruption' and when food sources are depleted in their Fenno-Scandinavian habitat they may arrive on the east coast of Scotland and England. Rowan berries are a favourite food and when a flock of waxwing descends on a fruit-bearing tree it's quite a spectacle. They're 'unusual' as Kate remarked. They're acrobatic in feeding and exotic in colouring.
This morning I came up a flock of some 15-20 birds in that same Hupeh Rowan where I photographed them on 6 December 2016, and on subsequent days. I saw them well and in good light and did not make the mistake of immediately heading home for my camera. They didn't stay long so it was the right decision. And once again I scoured the neighbourhood hoping to pick them up, but I did not.
So I return to images I took of waxwing in December 2016, in this same rowan and in alder. They show the 'wax' for which the bird is named, scarlet feathers on the flank. And bright yellow at the tip of the tail. They're a striking bird.
This morning I came up a flock of some 15-20 birds in that same Hupeh Rowan where I photographed them on 6 December 2016, and on subsequent days. I saw them well and in good light and did not make the mistake of immediately heading home for my camera. They didn't stay long so it was the right decision. And once again I scoured the neighbourhood hoping to pick them up, but I did not.
So I return to images I took of waxwing in December 2016, in this same rowan and in alder. They show the 'wax' for which the bird is named, scarlet feathers on the flank. And bright yellow at the tip of the tail. They're a striking bird.
They come seeking food but already many rowan berries have been stripped by resident blackbirds that lack the agility of waxwing. Knowing the fruit-bearing trees hereabouts I check them out, always hoping i'll be lucky. Roadside shrubs don't seem to deter them. They simply take flight at passing traffic but often return quickly. The pavement is littered with discarded berries, shrubs bare. There 's one lovely small rowan rich in yellow berries in a quiet garden and it's untouched. From previous quests to find waxwing I learn the jizz of the flock in flight, and their habits. I've seen them in fast-flight over roof-tops and either feeding in trees or in a high tree-roost. I've never seen them perched on any man-made structure, not on houses.
I'd love to see them again but they follow the food source and there's not much left hereabouts.
To me, there is something magical about the boreal forest where waxwing breed. I've only visited the taiga in the spring solstice when Northern Norway and Finland was in the grip of snow and ice, although all the seabirds were preparing to breed at that season.
I'd love to see them again but they follow the food source and there's not much left hereabouts.
To me, there is something magical about the boreal forest where waxwing breed. I've only visited the taiga in the spring solstice when Northern Norway and Finland was in the grip of snow and ice, although all the seabirds were preparing to breed at that season.
RSS Feed