Every year small numbers of Waxwings cross the North sea from their Northern European breeding grounds to winter in the UK. They are normally first found in Scotland and northern England before some, if us southerners are very lucky, make their way further south. Some years, however, irruptions occur when the population on the breeding grounds gets too big for the food available. In these years large numbers overwinter in the UK in what is known as a Waxwing winter. Significant numbers have already arrived this winter in Scotland and northern England hopefully indicating that we are in for a Waxwing winter.
Waxwings favourite winter food is Rowan berries hence they can often be found in rather incongruous settings such as supermarket car parks. For the past few days a small flock has been feasting on Rowans on a small area of scrub land opposite a care home in Sheringham on the east coast. Having stayed localish for the past two weeks I decided to head to Norfolk on Friday to see them. Now this may seem a little rash as cold easterlies in next week’s forecast could drive more birds across the North sea and further south but there are worse things in the world than seeing Waxwings twice!
There are 3 species of Waxwing worldwide. Firstly, the Japanese Waxwing which has never been recorded in the UK. Secondly, the North American Cedar Waxwing, an exceedingly rare vagrant to the UK with just 6 previous records. Thirdly, the one that occurs regularly in the UK, namely the Bohemian Waxwing.
Waxwings really are unmistakable birds. They have a prominent crest, a reddish-brown and black throat, a small black mask around the eye, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail. They have unique red tips to some of the wing feathers where the shafts extend beyond the barbs which looks as though they have been dipped in sealing wax, hence their common name.
Sheringham is around a three and a half hour drive from home but I always break long journeys such as this with a coffee stop. Hence with a departure time from home of 05:45 I arrived on site around 10:00. The scrub land was located down a path just off of the small suburban road and as I entered the area the attraction to the Waxwings was immediately obvious, perhaps twenty Rowan trees laden with fruit. I was told that the birds were last seen 30 minutes ago but I was not down hearted as they have a habit of gorging on the ripe red berries then disappearing for a while to digest them before returning for another feast. Sure enough after 30 minutes or so I saw the distinctive jet fighter type shape of the flock of eight Waxwings flying into one of the Rowans. They were much more skittish than other Waxwings I have seen recently, only feeding for a few minutes before some unknown threat send them into hiding again for another 30 minutes. I stayed for perhaps 3 hours and was treated to several of these brief visits.
Around 13:00 I went back to the car for a sandwich and considered what to do with the rest of my short winter day. The main options were staying local to look for some Purple Sandpipers or driving to Deeping lakes where a rare Red-flanked Bluetail had been found again that morning. The advantage of the latter being that it split my long drive home very nicely. The disadvantage was wasting 90 minutes of precious winter birding daylight in the car. Although I have seen several Red-flanked Bluetails in the UK before the attraction of seeing another of these charming little passerines coupled with splitting the drive soon had me driving to Deeping Lakes near Peterborough. I’ve only been to Deeping Lakes once before some years back with Jeremy to see a Long-eared Owl roost on one of the Islands. I’m not sure if this is still there but, with just an hour or so of daylight remaining when I arrived, I made my way straight to the small wood where the Bluetail had been seen. To cut a long story short it had not been seen since midmorning and there was no sign of it in the hour or so I was there. So here is one I took earlier.
Still a morning spent with our Bohemian visitors was more than ample compensation!
Nice pix Jim. Interestingly I found a Waxwing in Lerwick Harbour in June 2002. It was stood on top of a Landrover in front of us in the queue for the ferry back to Aberdeen. When I reported it, I was asked was I sure it was a Bohemian and not a Japanese since one of the latter had been seen a few times in that area. At the time I had no idea of the differences so couldn't be sure but I assumed we'd seen the Japanese variety because the more familiar Bohemian are usually well gone by June. The Japanese Waxwing was of course an escape from a local aviary.
ReplyDeleteCheers Nick! Didn't known about the Lerwick bird - interesting story!
DeleteGreat picture!
ReplyDeleteThanks Patricia!!
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