My first Waxwing Winter
Although the recent weather hasn’t made it seem like it, Spring has officially arrived in the UK. With that, there is a transition between winter and summer migrant birds. The sweet whistling calls of the wigeon decrease, and in their place there will soon be distant calls of the cuckoo and for those lucky enough, the purring of turtle doves.
One bird species that has had a successful winter here this year, is the bohemian waxwing. Every four years or so, the UK is witness to a ‘Waxwing Winter’. Known as an irruption, thousands of these striking birds fly South from the region of Scandinavia and other neighbouring countries, to gorge on the berries available from the highlands of Scotland and sometimes all the way down South to the coast of Cornwall. This year seems to have been one of those years, as I have seen the surplus amount of sightings being recorded up and down the country.
Despite a good amount of sightings being reported, some within an hour's drive of where I live, the waxwings seemed to have evaded me — either by them turning up when I wasn’t around or that the weather wasn’t ideal to go in search of them. However, on a day I had planned to do some filming of the arrival of Spring, I came across a sighting reported the day before on the Facebook page ‘Waxwing Locations UK Winter 23/24’ — it’s worth joining a page like this and for other migrating bird species so that you have a better chance of finding them. As I was heading in that direction anyway, I thought I would visit the location to see if they were still there.
I arrived at the location, which was within a built-up area of new houses, on a windy, but mild, morning last week, and made my way towards a path that ran along the outskirts of a small estate and near the main A-road. I looked all around at the tops of trees and bushes, which still had some red berries on their branches. Ten minutes passed and I began to feel unsure that they were still in the area. Maybe I was a day too late?
But then, as I made my way up along the path, I noticed at the top of a bare birch tree six round dots. I put my binoculars to my eyes and immediately recognised the tuft on the top of the birds’ heads. It was the waxwings!! As calmly as I could, I walked a bit further along the path so I became near adjacent to the tree, set up my camera and tripod, and began taking pictures and video footage. The sky was overcast which I don’t particularly like to have as a background in my images, but I took images more as a record over getting a ‘perfect’ shot. I didn’t want to spook them and cause them to fly off and not return to the same spot, so I moved a little closer every few minutes and the waxwings appeared very comfortable in my presence, as they continued to preen themselves in the slightly blustery wind. owN and then, they did fly off but would circle back around and land in the same tree or on one close by. I was in absolute awe the whole time and couldn’t believe I was seeing them with my own eyes!
An hour had passed and eventually, the small group of waxwings flew off to another area of the estate, so I headed back to my car with a spring in my step! As I turned the last corner to where my car was parked, a pair of waxwings from the original group were sitting in a small tree next to the car! Again, I was astounded by how content they were with me being nearby, and they acted the same when locals walked their dogs along the path close to them. I stayed a little longer, taking images and footage as they preened and sat proudly in the morning sun.
It felt as though, by seeing these wonderful waxwings, I was saying farewell to winter as I knew that they would be imminently flying back towards Scandinavia, and I probably wouldn’t see them again until Winter returned. For the rest of the morning, as I went on to film and photograph at another location, I enjoyed reliving the moment of spending time with the waxwings while joyously seeing and hearing the arrival of Spring, from the buds emerging on blossom trees to the distant call of a chiffchaff.
