Waxwings (2 Viewers)

[James Thomas]

Just had a quick tot up, about 2500 birds reported today, they've gone a long way west and south as well, NI and Kent.

 

[The sniper]

there have been reports of waxwing in holland haven cp,near walton on the naze.
I believe there were 3 flocks reported,one was a flock of 9,not sure the sizes of the other flocks.
Also RL buzzard has been seen in the same area

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Just had a quick tot up, about 2500 birds reported today, they've gone a long way west and south as well, NI and Kent.

I reckon there must be at least 1000 in and around Inverness, flocks of 200 at Longman and another 300 by the Hospital.

 

[rosbifs]

Birds already in France aswell.

I think we are in for a long cold winter. Look at all the arctic birds already. Both eastern and western.

We have settled snow down to 800 metres and falling at 600 metres.

30000 Cranes in North West France!!

Batten down the hatches. Actually, go and lob a few dead cod on the beach and wait for the Ivory Gull...

 

[dafi]

Im sure i read some where on the forum the other day that the berry crop is very poor across northern europe this year. Does anybody know what the score is ??

 

[Xenospiza]

If the berry crop is really poor, we should await more interesting Scandinavian birds. Influx in the Netherlands as well (40 sites listed on Dutch Bird Alert) – and very early. Apparently, the biggest influx there (1965-66) also started early. At least this gives me a fighting chance to get them on my UK self-found list.

 

[Edward]

Why do they continue on to the Hebrides??? There are loads there today and very few on the east coast. They must have come from Scandinavia, once they hit Britain there are loads of berries. Why carry on to the edge of the civilised world???

The Hebrides the edge of the civilised world? Waxwings keep going a lot further west than that: the first wave reached Iceland on Sunday where the trees are groaning under the weight of berries.

 

[rosbifs]

Do you have trees in Iceland?

 

[McMadd]

Out of curiosity I checked yesterdays sighting for Waxwing on the "Tiira" recording pages...the top 5 by number of birds (828, 525, 500, 450 and 200) were all located on the South or SW coast...add to that, as I stated on this or another thread on here, the volume of berries on my local trees (by the bus stop...which makes for a nice start to the day...watching Waxies wolf down berries) suggests there'll be little reward in them staying around locally this year...off to see what the reports for hawk owls, grozzers, etc have to tell me now...

 

[chris butterworth]

Do you have trees in Iceland?

.......and fours, and fives 3

Chris

 

[Andrew Whitehouse]

Suspected I might see a few Waxwings on my way to work today and sure enough around eight were flycatching in the trees at the University. Not very big numbers here in 'Britain's Waxwing capital' but I expect we'll see a few more over the coming days and weeks.

 

[Edward]

Do you have trees in Iceland?

We do rosbifs, an increasing number of the damn things, blocking our views, making vagrants more difficult to find.

 

[James Thomas]

Don't know what the rest of the UK is like but in our part of West Yorks the rowans had very few berries at the end of summer, high winds blew a lot off and there's loads of starlings scoffing them. If this is repeated elsewhere even Cornwall could expect decent sized flocks.

 

[djprest]

Don't know what the rest of the UK is like but in our part of West Yorks the rowans had very few berries at the end of summer, high winds blew a lot off and there's loads of starlings scoffing them. If this is repeated elsewhere even Cornwall could expect decent sized flocks.

loads of rowan berries in halifax at the moment and even 26 waxwings this afternoonB

 

[James Thomas]

Good, hopefully it will keep them for a while. Planning a trip over in the morning.

 

[James Thomas]

Given the number of waxwings in the UK and their photogenic appeal, how many photos will be uploaded to Birguides before winter is out? Currently 1937 photos, my guess is that will double.

 

[stevo]

Some in London today so hopefully we`ll get some in Hampshire(goes to check the local supermarkets car parks)

Steve.

 

[Marcus Conway - ebirder]

Given the number of waxwings in the UK and their photogenic appeal, how many photos will be uploaded to Birguides before winter is out? Currently 1937 photos, my guess is that will double.

Was thinking the same - best get some uploaded.

 

[James Thomas]

I was really hoping for some good shots today, the colours on the leaves would make a fantastic background. They didn't come anywhere near, way up in the tops of some tatty sycamores and then dashing off to catch flies. Another day..

 

[captaincarot]

at 10.37 this morning around 20 of them flew over the flouch roundabout on the end of the woodhead heading south.