Saturday 16 February 2013

Waxwings Rivington Road, Queens Park

To say I was gutted to hear about 50 Waxwings in the Cotoneaster at Queens Park Primary School in Rivington Road on Thusrday, while I was on Anglesey, would be the under statement of the year! Not having a garden, this tree is the nearest I can possibly hope to having Waxwings in my garden. So this morning I've walked past the tree about 5 times in the hope that  they would be there again, and on the first four occasions was disappointed.

Then finally, at 10:45 I opened the front door on my way out again, and immediately I could hear them, and there they were, 38 of them high up in the Poplar trees next to the tennis courts in Queens Park! I grabbed my camera and went and stood near the cotonester. After about 10 minutes they flew down and began feeding, but not before they briefly landed on the wires to allow me to get a photo. They were in the Cotoneaster for about 2 minutes, and then flew back up to the Poplar trees.

I returned home and tried to get them on my house list. I could see them from my front door, I could see them from an upstairs window and I even found a cotoneaster berry on my front step! That's good enough for me, they're on my garden list!

I saw them again at 12:30 after they had been missing for an hour.



The distant photo of the birds in the tree is interesting, because it's exactly the same tree that the Fieldfares used to perch in when they were in the cotoneaster last month. I know there are a lot better photos than these on the internet, but bear with me, I've been watching this tree for 20 years without sight nor sound of a Waxwing in it. If anybody wants to send me a better photo of these birds which they don't mind me using here I'd really appreciate it, and obviously I'd fully acknowledge it. Thanks to Peter for the tip off.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Colin, would you believe it i got up this morning, undid the patio door curtains and there was a group of 30 Waxwings in the tree at the bottom of our garden. One photo is in my flicker stream, its not great but one of the 30 birds was ringed!

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  2. Excellent, after a bit of a lull, it sounds like they're in the move through our area again.Chance for a few more sightings yet.

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