Waxwings

Told you so - feeling smug!

There's been quite an influx of these Nordic nomads. They're an 'irruptive' species, only arriving in numbers in certain winters, dictated by food availability in Scandinavia. The last big invasion years were in 2008 and 2004.

They feed in tight flocks which take part in 'feeding frenzies'. The whole flock may spend a great deal of time at the top of a tall tree, calling loudly, then, as if at a signal, they will descend 'en masse' into a bush full of berries, feed like crazy for a few minutes then all suddenly return to their treetop vantage point. In those few minutes they can completely strip at least part of the bush.

We'd heard of a few sightings of flocks in the Morlich Place area of Kinross, not a normal birding area, but a smart housing estate with a few berry bearing trees. We had a drive round but the weather was not conducive - wet & windy, so we retired for a coffee and headed off in other directions. A couple of hours later met up with another birder who showed us photos of a couple of birds he'd found an hour ago in Morlich Place!

So back to Morlich Place and almost immediately we came across a flock of over 100 birds. After passing the 10,000 mark on the 550D (since mid April) we headed back to further explore Loch Leven. We did actually revisit Morlich Place on two more occassions, but never saw them again, so I consider myself quite lucky to have fulfilled yesterday's prophecy.

These birds deserve to be viewed in Large

For your information this is how the influx has been recorded over the last three days:

Sunday 24th October: The Waxwing invasion gathered momentum, with the highest counts coming from Orkney (150 at Stromness), Highland (80 in Arisaig), Western Isles (75 on North Uist) and Argyll (75 on Jura).

Monday 25th October: Waxwings continued to flood into Britain; counts included 500 on Lewis (Western Isles), 250 in Stromness (Orkney), 200 in Inverness (Highland), 160 at Alness (Highland), 150 on Seil Island (Argyll), 150 at Kinloss (Moray), 140 at Udale Bay (Highland), 100 at Fort William (Highland) and 100 Kyle of Lochalsh (Highland).

Tuesday 26th October: Waxwings were recorded in forty counties.