Wax on, wax off, wax in

Yep, the boys (and girls) are back in town. WHOOPPPEEE.

I've been tracking sightings of Waxwings on the internet for the past week or so, since they arrived in Shetland.

Word soon gets around and the first sightings of Waxwings locally had me off to Stocks Road mid-morning (on the way to the clinic, but best leave it at that). Nope. Or maybe. As I was getting back into the car I saw some 'Starlings' alighting in a tree where I had just walked; bins, not Starlings but 6 or so Waxwings but just as quickly as they alighted they were off again, over the rooftops. A Mistle Thrush sat on a TV aerial and I think this was spooking them. Plus a Magpie.

That had me wondering, knowing the area a bit, I walked to the end of the road and down a side alley and there in the back garden of a house about four doors away was a large tree and in the top, 8 waxwings. Super. And then they were off again. I wondered if they had gone off to Euston Road where sightings had been reported and where two years earlier they had been welcomed. On the road again, sure enough, on arriving scopes and lenses gave the game away.

It was bit grey and overcast and the light not great, anyway the Waxwings were around and quite a large flock of 60 or perhaps more at times. They had attracted the attention of a Sparrowhawk that made a couple of visits while I was there, sending the birds off elsewhere.

True to form they collected in a flock and alighted in the tops of the tall silver birch before descending on masse into just one rowan tree, fed and then off they went again. At times the sun came out. Repeat performances.

The selection of images is an attempt to illustrate their behaviour and various aspects of their plumage. Hope you enjoy as much as I did – I hear the weather forecast for tomorrow is not promising.