Wax Wing Winter

After the recent stormy weather it was a delight to know that today would be a dry day, and with that in mind I went back to see the Waxwings again. As someone else recently said, to judge by their recent photographic coverage on-line you would think that the UK's most populous bird species are Waxwings and Short Eared Owls.  Needless to say the true situation is that it is the rarity of both species that makes them such a great photographic target.

The Waxwings seem pretty inured to the humans watching them. As the birds stay in a flock, so too do the  scrum of bird watchers and photographers that chase them around the Common.  The birds clearly  have their "safe" trees which they come back to after a few minutes active duty on one of the small berry bearing bushes trying to gobble up every single berry.    They also need a drink between gorging on the berries and will fly down en-masse  to little puddles for a quick gulp of muddy water.

The predictability of the bird's behaviour is only exceeded by that of the humans.  One chap brought along his camping chair and proceeded to plonk it in the midst of a group of berry bearing bushes, where he thought he'd get the best view.  There was a fair bit of loud grumbling about "F-ing Idiots" from some of the assembled photographers, as needless to say the birds immediately went back to a "Safe Tree" and eventually decided to investigate other berry bushes elsewhere.

I stayed away from the worst of it and was rewarded by being in the right place at the right time when the birds came to me.  The main shows a Waxwing juggling a berry as it tries to get it at the right angle to be able to be swallowed whole.  The first extra I've labelled "bad hair day" the second extra is of a waxwing flying towards me, and the final rather contrasty shot is of a bird drinking.

At this rate I may actually use up all my extras this year.