When I arrived at Milner Street, the Waxwings hadn't been seen for quite a while, and there were murmurings amongst the birders present that they may have gone for good. Three or four birders even left without seeing them. However, in my experience it's not at all unusual for Waxwings to go missing for an hour or two, and there were still plenty of berries on the trees, so I decided to wait. Sure enough, after about 15 minutes I heard a familiar call overhead and 9 birds flew in and landed in a tall tree next to the car park. A couple of minutes later, a much larger flock flew in and joined them.
After a few minutes, they flew down and started feeding on the berries, almost oblivious to our presence and the comings and goings of cars in the road. Waxwings are always exciting, immaculate birds, I've never seen a grotty one, and I don't think they have juveniles! It's always a good day when you see a Waxwing. 
It was a another glorious autumnal day, we've been so lucky this year, and I just love the colours in these photographs. It did occur to me when I took the photo of the VW sign that I had chopped off part of the logo, and I took several other photos with the logo intact, but unfortunately, on balance, this is the best photo of the birds, so I'm sticking with it.
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDeleteIt's the main VW garage in Warrington, Milner street, just off the A57.
Yes there are plenty of berries!
ReplyDeleteHi Colin,i went this afternoon and got there at 3.15pm. It was already going dark. The Waxwings alighted the bare tree just at the VW entrance and stayed for 20 seconds.I reeled off half a dozen shots but they turned out very poor due to the poor light and not being able to get very close. I then stood on the pavement opposite about 15 feet away, raised my camera and they flew off!I suppose,again, i need to be as early as possible. The weather is supposed to improve for midweek,maybe i'll get better shots then if theyre still around. A salesman on the VW carpark said there were loads of photographers yesterday with camouflage gear.Ive heard Waxwings can be very tame but this group of 16 were very jumpy!
ReplyDeleteHi Andrew, I'm glad that you at least saw them! Hopefully they'll stay a bit longer
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