Happy New Bird

I slept in late today, and by the time I surfaced the bright morning light was already fading. Even with the cloud building though, I couldn't resist a trip to Cheltenham, where I knew that at least eight Waxwings were hanging out in a small local park. The journey took longer than I'd expected because I got tangled up in Cheltenham Racecourse traffic, and by the time I'd struggled free and found the park it was late morning, and the light was very drab indeed. None of the birding friends I'd expected to see was there, but there were about twenty people standing around with binoculars and cameras, so I knew I was in the right place. A few minutes later Hillyblips arrived, and we stood together exchanging all the goss, while we waited for the Waxwings to come within shooting distance.

There are a couple of large trees in Naunton Park (beeches, I think, though tree identification isn't my strongest suit), and the Waxwings and a small flock of Redwings were using one of them as their base. It's liberally festooned with mistletoe, on which the birds were feeding, but from time to time - despite all the watching humans - they seemed unable to resist the temptation to drop down into a group of small rowans in the centre of the park. Once they'd grabbed a few rowan berries they would swoop back up to the mistletoe, and there they'd stay until the siren call of the rowans pulled them back again. Raw rowan berries are poisonous to humans, and reputedly very bitter, but birds appear to find them utterly delicious.

This isn't the first time I've photographed Waxwings, and they're not my best Waxwing photos (those would be the set that includes this image), but given the conditions today I'm not unhappy with what I managed to capture, and I'm adding two extra photos to this post. The first is a half profile image, which shows not only the bird's crest but also its fabulous yellow wing and tail borders, and the vivid red tips of its secondary flight feathers which supposedly resemble candles, and give the species its common name. The second isn't descriptive enough of the Waxwing for my personal taste, but it shows a berry toss, which is a good enough reason to include it. All in all, this was a very satisfactory start to the new birding year.