A Waxwing Winter

Waxwing

Every winter a small number of Waxwings can be found in the UK, mainly in the north and northeast. Just occasionally, a mass eruption occurs with many thousands of birds that would usually overwinter in Scandinavia relocating to the UK. We call this very welcome phenomena a “Waxwing Winter”. Such an eruption has occurred this year with remarkable flocks exceeding a thousand birds relocating to Scotland in the late autumn and early winter to feed on the abundant berry crop. Rowan berries are a particular favourite. I always thought that these mass eruptions only occur when the berry crop has failed in Scandinavia but a number of people have told me that the berry crop there has been very good this year. So I’m not sure what has driven this year’s mass eruption.

As the berry crop further north becomes exhausted the birds move south in search of food and so I’ve been waiting for a photo opportunity from some local birds. With not much else around birding wise my resolve finally broke and I drove 60 or so miles up the M6 to a place called Fenton where a roaming flock had been feeding on local berries for the past week.

I arrived close to the reported location and parked next to some very promising looking Rowan trees laden with ripe yellow berries. I got out of the car with my bins and immediately spotted 8 Waxwings in a tall tree opposite the road to the Rowans. Waxwings are one of those birds where sun and blue sky is a huge advantage for photography and I hence had picked a day with a sunny forecast. Foolish me! In fact it was of course very overcast with diffuse grey light which washes most of the colour out of pictures. I checked the “forecast “ again which told me that it was currently very sunny. So here’s my old hobby horse, I can understand that weather forecasting can be difficult, but this was an observation of current conditions not a forecast so how can it be completely wrong. My wife always laughs at me when I discus the forecast with her telling me to look out of the window instead – wise words!

I had parked my car on the opposite side of the road to the Rowans with the aim of standing behind it to provide some cover. They were using the higher tree as safe sanctuary dropping down to the lower Rowans to feed frantically for a few moments before flying back to their high perch.

There are three species of Waxwings classified in the genus Bombycilla. The European species is the attractively named Bohemian Waxwing. There are also a small number of European records of the much rarer Cedar Waxwing from North America. The remaining member of the genus, the Japanese Waxwing, has never occurred in a wild state in Europe. The Bohemian Waxwing is pinkish-brown and pale grey with a black and white eye stripe, a crest, a square-cut tail and pointed wings. Some of the wing feathers have red tips said to resemble sealing wax giving rise to their common name.

Initially I was the only person present but after 30 minutes or so another local photographer joined me. He told me his wife had advised against coming to this locality in case he got mugged! I have to say it didn’t look that bad to me. Perhaps it was an example of one of my favourite Artic Monkeys songs “ They say it changes when the sun goes down”.

More birders and photographers slowly arrived and the Waxwings continued to show well intermittently until 10:30 when the whole flock flew off high northwards. Other birds feeding on the Rowans kept us amused for a while during there absence. A pair of overwintering Blackcaps and a brutish looking Mistle Thrush enjoyed the berry feast laid on by the Rowans.

Around about lunch time an old chap drove up in a small car and parked exactly opposite mine on the other side of the road completely blocking it! I assumed he was just dropping something off but to my amazement he got out, put on his walking boots, and locked the car! He then came over the road and said to me “someone’s parked on the wrong side of the road”. I pointed out to him that there were no other cars here when I arrived and there weren’t any signs or road markings to back up his comment. I was tempted to tell him what a di*k head he was but decided to swallow my pride and move my car, after all I was here for a nice relaxing day not a confrontation with this idiot.

A couple of hours went by with no further sign of the Waxwings when a van driver stopped and told us he had just seen them at a nearby cemetery. The sun had finally started to breakthrough at this point so we decided to relocate to the cemetery to see if we could find them. Close by turned out to be a 20 minute walk to a massive cemetery where there were no sign of Waxwings or tree laden berries for them to feed on. Not wanting to miss out on the sunny spell we walked back to the rowan trees and as we arrived the Waxwings flew back in and began feeding on the Rowans again. I stayed until 15:00 when the sun started to dip down and then made my way home through the Friday traffic, very content with my Waxwing experience.