Waxwings have been slowly making there way way south across the country. It has been a Waxwing year with some huge numbers appearing in the north and down the east coast. Now they have started to appear in the south. There have been one or two reports in Hampshire, but not the numbers seen elsewhere, so when there was a report of 4o plus just down the road in Farnham I just had to go. The last time I saw Waxwings in the UK was February 2017 at Whitely, I missed the birds in Totton back in 2019.
As usual the birds were feeding on berries in a small cul-de-sac surrounded by bungalows. After parking the car I walked back to the site and could see the Waxwings in a nearby tree. In fact I heard them as I walked up, there trilling contact calls unmistakeable.
It was possible to get in a little closer to see the yellow wing bars and the punky crest.
Then they would take off.
And all come down to the Rowan tree in the middle of the green. Not the usual red berries though this tree had white berries. The Waxwing would drop in and were a little harassed, feeding quickly on the berries.
Then almost as quickly as they appeared they would fly back to the tree. I took this as a silhouette in amongst the branches. The wispy, punky crest unmistakeable.
There is something about Waxwings that stirs emotions in almost everyone, birders and non birders appear fascinated by them and they attract crowds to see them. This is as much a result of where they turn up. They like trees with berries and over the years housing estates and supermarket car parks were decorated with the Rowan tree, or Mountain Ash. They are relatively fast growing tees and help landscape the developments, but they also produce berries and Waxwings love them.
There were quite a few people there when I arrived and people would come and go while passers by would ask what we were looking at and you would show them and they would be thrilled. On lady turned up, managed to see the flock for about thirty seconds, when they flew off she threw up her hands and shouted in glee and then left. There were photographers who were didn't look like birders, no binoculars just a camera and it was these that started to upset the birders, they would try and get too close and this behaviour was probably the reason for the short amount of time the Waxwings took on the berries.
I moved around to try and improve the light and they came down once again. Because they were so quick you had to focus on one particular bird and I was lucky to get three together.
I love the stare of the bird on the right.
They would pull the berry off the tree and then throw it up in the air to catch and swallow.
They flew off once again and I assumed back to the tree, but a little later I looked and they were not there, then this appeared and was more than likely the reason they were not sticking around, a Sparrowhawk.
Prior to the Waxwing invasion in 2017, the last big one was in 2010, that year a similar size flock was in hawthorn on a roundabout on the A331, and I photographed a Sparrowhawk eating on e of the Waxwings. Large flocks will attract predators it is the way of life.
When they eventually did return it was brief, but it did allow me to get a view of the reason for their name. They have long red waxy appendages on the secondaries in the adult birds. Aging can also be determined by the amount of crest the bird has and the lack of defined yellow barring on the primaries. This being an adult, probably a male.
In flight they look very much like a Starling but are very rarely seen on the ground, in the branches they can be very acrobatic as they look to pull berries.
Time was moving on and an already gloomy dull day was becoming even gloomier. The Waxwings were gone again and couldn't be seen so I decided to head home. A perfect end to the year, but now I would need them to turn up in Hampshire in 2024, there is every chance.
Happy New Year!
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