Monday 26 November 2012

A flying visit

Look who we bumped into on the way to the supermarket!
They let us get really close.



Waxwings have been arriving in large numbers in recent weeks.  I wasn't as lucky as Shirley at Shirl's Gardenwatch who spotted two from her window.  We were on our way to Asda when Andy took a detour to check out a possible sighting and there they were waiting for us.  We had driven through plenty of open countryside with hedgerows filled with berries but these birds seem to prefer built up areas.  I have only ever seen them in the middle of housing estates.





This one was having a bad hair day!

While this one had attitude!
ARE YOU LOOKING AT ME?!!!
Some local residents popped out to ask what we were looking at: they were delighted to discover these beautiful visitors. 
Visit Shirley's blog to see a great video of  Waxwings feeding from the hand.


Photographs by Andy Mason

6 comments:

  1. How wonderful you saw already waxwings and could make such a beautiful pictures.
    I have only seen them in our garden when it was freezing cold last year. The one which is looking at you, he is great!

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  2. You lucky thing! I love waxwings! We had them in our garden in Cheshire when I was about 5 years old and I can remember having to be impossibly quiet and our front garden being full of reporters and photographers. I've never seen them in the South East.

    These are fabulous photos!

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    1. My husband went to twitch a rare bird in someone's garden last year. He spent five hours queueing to get in as so many birders turned up. The couple charged £5 to go into their kitchen for half an hour in order to see the bird through the window! The money went to the RSPB. I think I would be tempted to keep quiet if a rare bird turned up in my garden!!

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  3. You ARE lucky... they are beautiful! Will they stay all Winter?

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    1. Yes, they are all over the place at the moment - a friend phoned to say he was photographing a flock of 40 this morning in a city centre. The place was packed but very few people noticed them.

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