Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) - Jubilee River, Bucks. December 2012.

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) - Aylesbury, Bucks. December 2012.

Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) Marlow 30/01/11

My next Waxwing encounter was to be in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, with a mobile flock that was often seen around Globe Park Industrial Estate and some of the surrounding residential areas.

With no sign at any of the residential areas i continued on to Globe Park, driving south down “Parkway” i soon began to hear the familiar trilling calls and spotted a small group of Waxwings in tall trees adjacent to “The Chase”, as i stopped they departed! I continued along Parkway checking bushes, trees amongst the industrial estate but without any luck, there was still a number of berry laden bushes and after checking each one that was visible i soon met a group of people viewing one intently. I stopped, parked up and wandered over to them, unfortunately they hadn’t seen the Waxwings and were watching a few Redwings feeding on a berry bush so i headed off on foot for a look about.

I decided to walk north along the pavement/footpath alongside “parkway” scanning every bush and tree as i went, the constant drone of traffic from the A404 made it impossible to hear anything at distance but finally as i approached the footbridge which crosses the A404 i spotted and heard a flock of Waxwings overhead. They crossed the A404 and landed in trees on the west side of the dual carriageway and almost at bridge height where they perched. 

I crossed the bridge and found them in a tree next to the footpath and lake that leads to Westhorpe House. They were at the top of a tree and at the same height as i was standing on the A404 footbridge, here they spent 5 or so minutes preening. There seemed to be a lot of mutual preening and interaction between a number of birds, signs of early courtship or family groups? small numbers then began dropping down to feed on Rosehip and Hawthorn berries in and around bramble thickets at the bottom of the trees next to the bridge. It was great watching them, almost perfect blue skies and magical views of these stunning birds. Unfortunately this didn’t last long as 4 youngsters suddenly turned up on quad bikes and scramble bikes and literally tore the place up flushing everything everywhere, these little so & so’s continued to rev the n*ts off their bikes and the Waxwings took flight to the top of the trees where they grouped together before departing. Again i was thwarted by some little scrote-bags on motorbikes.



 I watched them fly back over the A404 eastwards towards the Industrial estate and “Forth Avenue” area where they perched up, numbers increased with what looked to be smaller parties of 3’s and 4’s arriving from different directions until they numbered somewhere in the 40-50’s, perhaps more, it was difficult to count exactly as some where obscured by branches. I watched them from Parkway feeding in the roadside hedges where again i witnessed some very friendly behaviour between a few of the birds, again there was a lot of mutual preening and at one point 3 birds lined up together on a branch and preened each other, one got less of a preen and flew to another bird which in turn preened it. Their feeding seemed a bit more relaxed than others i have seen perhaps a reflection of the slightly warmer weather and not the snow covered towns and villages that greeted them earlier in the year. There were also a number of birds feeding others at an almost leisurely pace, not the usual frenetic pluck the berry and down in one but a simple pick and pass which i had never witnessed before.

As the afternoon ebbed away there was one last chance of a few photos as the birds posed in the afternoon sun before departing east over the A404 and towards the popular trees on the A4155 opposite the Wyevale garden centre.



Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) - Henley-on-Thames, Oxon. 22/12/10

Waxwing-Waitrose car park, Henley-on-Thames.

With the sighting of 40 Waxwings being reported at 12:15pm in Waitrose car park, Henley-on-Thames on Berksbirds i decided to go and see if i could locate them. At 2pm i arrived to find them in 2 flocks at the library end(N) of the car park, despite the ambiaent sound of daily human life i could hear their sweet trilling calls coming from a number of tall trees next to the library and also in the tall trees near to the cinema/Brakspear’s offices (the Bull Courtyard)(N/E), from here they all flew to the tall trees on the Kings Rd side(W) of the car park enabling me to do a quick count of 65+ Waxwings. They soon began dropping down from the trees and amongst the cars in the car park to feed on the small berry trees. The big problem was that the car park was very busy with Christmas shoppers and the birds were constantly flushed by passers-by and cars, they were not spending much more than 30 seconds feeding and were flighty. When they did get a chance to snatch a few berries the views were fantastic, especially as these trees are small and the birds are almost at head height, a good number of passers-by stopped to watch and ask about them and all left very thrilled in seeing them. Sadly the light was so poor and with a mist that almost enveloped the car park the chance of some good photos evaporated quickly, it also didn’t help that the birds were very restless due to the constant traffic around them and at 3:15pm they flew off in N/W direction in 2 flocks, i searched the local area and saw 2 flying towards Friar Park but couldn’t re-locate any others.

I returned on Christmas Day as i was visiting family in the area but unfortunately the car park was empty and the majority of the berry trees were now bare, again they had eluded my attempts at getting some acceptable photos. My search would continue.......

Rough-legged Buzzard (Buteo lagopus) - Reed, Herts & Waxwing (Bombycilla garrulus) - The Lodge, Sandy, Beds. 19th November 2008.

Waxwing

Having never seen Rough-legged Buzzard before I was excited to hear of one being found in Hertfordshire. I Read the reports about it on Lee Evans's UK400 Club Rare Bird Alert blog(http://uk400clubrarebirdalert.blogspot.com/) and contacted Roy Rose. We soon planned a trip up to see it and I informed Roy that a small Waxwing flock was present at "The Lodge" RSPB reserve in Bedfordshire and we agreed to go and see them as well. We would also try and hopefully stop off at Port Meadow and Farmoor Reservoir in Oxfordshire on the way home.

We arrived north of Reed Village, Herts. and soon found ourselves at Hatchpen Farm, after spotting 2 Red Kites drifting over the fields we parked in the lay-by at the entrance to the farm. We walked up the road to a small gathering of people who were viewing the fields towards the A10 who informed us the Rough-legged Buzzard had drifted over the fields to the west side of the A10 and then had dropped down out of sight, we were directed to a church spire in the distance and told that it was last seen in that area. Everybody scanned the fields and suddenly somebody cried "it's up", a brief view was given before the bird dropped down out of sight but within seconds it appeared drifting slowly over the fields again. It flew across the fields gaining height as it went which gave good views of both the under and upperwings, the white tail and broad tail band clear to see as well as the dark belly, a very clean and fresh looking juvenile/sub adult bird. We all watched it as it continued to drift over the fields before briefly hovering and then dropping out of sight, it remained out of sight for 20 or so minutes before showing briefly again as it drifted along a brow of a hill on the west side of the A10 and again it dropped down out of sight. We waited for another 30 minutes without any further sightings and decided to head off to Sandy to find the Waxwings. By the time we left we had seen 5 birds of prey which included of Red Kite, Rough-legged buzzard, Common Buzzard, Kestrel and a Sparrowhawk which was circling over the lay-by.

We made our way from Reed to The RSPB headquarters at Sandy, Bedfordshire in search of the Waxwings, arriving at the Lodge Roy and I checked the trees at the gatehouse with no luck and headed off down the gateway trail path listening out for the "trilling" calls of the Waxwing, seeing and hearing nothing we returned along the path to the gatehouse where we once again scanned the trees. It was at this point when a gentlemen from the offices at the Lodge who was on his lunch hour took us to another location nearby where the Waxwings had been visiting, sadly there was no sign of them and we wandered back to the gatehouse for one last check around the reserve entrance. The fields around the Lodge hosted a few Stock Doves, good numbers of Goldfinch and a lone Siskin in the Lodge garden. There was still no sign of any Waxwings and after having a look in the RSPB shop we wandered back to the car where we met somebody getting out of his car with a camera, he asked us if we had seen the Waxwings and we told him we had been looking for them for but hadn't seen them. Roy and I decided to get in the car and drive along Potton Road to see if we could locate them, we had already seen a number of berry bushes that had been striped of a few berries along the road and felt that perhaps we might be able to have a quick look. As we headed to the car a very friendly couple approached us and asked if we were looking for the Waxwings, they then told us that they were sat in a large Oak tree about 500yrds along Potton Road, we thanked them and headed off to the car. Driving along Potton Road we soon saw them perched in the Oak tree next to the road, finding a place to park we viewed from distance and counted 10 perched in the tree. Walking along Potton road we came to the Oak tree with the waxwings perched above, their "trilling" calls could now be heard clearly above the constant drone of passing vehicles. They preened methodically and continually for sometime before flying down to the berry bushes on the roadside opposite us, the traffic didn't help and although 2 or 3 would stay feeding when cars passed but the large lorries soon flushed them and back to the Oak tree they returned. This continued for the next 30 minutes with the birds coming down to feed in groups of 4 or 5 staying until another vehicle flushed them back to the tree, finally the whole group came down to feed and after 5 minutes of devouring berries they took to the air and headed off back towards the Lodge reserve.

Waxwing Video

Leaving Sandy we headed south towards Oxford with the hope of visiting both Port Meadow and Farmoor Reservoir, time really wasn't on our side and due to traffic congestion approaching Oxford we soon realised that it would be a very tight squeeze to get to both locations before the sun went down. We finally arrived at Port Meadow with the sun starting to fade and a walk along from the public car park found us viewing the floods, neither of us had been to Port Meadow before and it was impressive to see both good numbers of birds and a good variety of species in close proximity to the City itself. Waders included a flock of 100 or so Golden Plover, 2 Redshank feeding along the waters edge with Ruff, Black-tailed Godwit and Dunlin. As dusk approached the Gull roost started to swell with both Black-headed and Herring Gulls making an appearance, we headed off in the hope of getting to Farmoor but were soon stuck in traffic as the sun set, there was no way we would get there and decided instead to head for home.(The Port Meadow blog run by Adam Hartley can be found here www.surfbirds.com/blog/PortMeadowBirding )

As we neared my home I mentioned to Roy that many of the local herds of Deer could be crossing the country lanes and to be careful, they have a tendency to walk straight out in front of you just when you least expect it, as we turned the next corner we came face to face with a herd of Fallow Deer crossing the lane in front of us. Great views as they passed a metre in front of the car and we couldn't have timed it better.

Added To My Year List.

217. Rough-legged Buzzard
218. Waxwing
219. Ruff

Added To My Life List.

307. Rough-legged Buzzard