Migration news 28 October 2010

The annual Squadron of Starlings is forming over the small rural town of Market Drayton in NE Shropshire. They began flocking together at the beginning of the month and now there is a group of about 50+ hanging about my small patch. I expect this to continue increasing in size but they will not get back to the vast thousands that entertained us as illustrated in the similar photo above. Sadly about 4 years ago an amazing 40ft tall factory screening row of 50+ conifers around the car park was chopped down due to complaints it was the rooting place for these wonderful birds, and now we have lost this jaw dropping evening “murmuration” of starlings spectacle over the town.

A house martin passed Withernsea, East Yorks flying south, guess it's the last one I'll see for a while. However coal tits and tree sparrows have arrived on the garden feeders. Which is a first. So not all bad news.

Looks like were in for Brambling winter this year, larger than normal numbers have been overflying my local patch in the West Midlands/Worcs this Autumn with birds most days this week flying West with Chaffinches. Starlings were on the move heading West in low numbers yesterday, but haven't really arrived in force yet. Numbers of Fieldfares have dropped off after the big arrival of the 20th October, but are still passing through. Waxwings to come hopefully!

More details at:- https://lutleybirder.blogspot.com

Waxwings spotted in the grounds of Scone palace today in perth Scotland

Nio McGill Edinburgh

I saw two waxwings in Lerwick yesterday, this is the first time I have seen waxwings in Shetland for about three years. They usually come and eat the berries on the trees.

One autumn I was watching waxwings from my kitchen window when I realised the cat had one under a bush, I rushed out and chased the cat away and picked up a drab grey wet barely breathing bird. I popped it into a shoebox and put it next to the heater in the kitchen, fearing the worst. Two hours later I heard some noises coming from the box, I peeked inside and what a glorious transformation had taken place, there sat quite calmly, in all its glory the revived waxwing, so of course I let him go again. An unforgetable moment.

Over forty waxwings today at the coach park end of Booths supermarket in Keswick. They were gorging on berries from a nearby yew tree, taking it in turns to feed whilst the others sung in that exotic voice that lifts the spirit and gladdens the heart!

Can anyone recall the term that Chris Packham used to describe the motion of flocking starlings, in his science geek facts on Autumnwatch 2009?

We watched a flock of about 50 waxwings at Tarbert on the Isle of Harris from 23 to 30 October

We have a flock of waxwins been here about a week. On a farm Ellon Aberdeenshire.

We live in Whitby on the Yorkshire coast. At about midnight a few nights ago we heard what sounded like a skein of geese passing over. They continued honking for about ten minutes, but we could not see them because of low cloud. Does anyone have any idea what they were?

i was in scotland at the weekend and on sunday 7/11 in the village of redding near falkirk there was 9 waxwings on the tree at my parents rear garden.thats the first time i have ever seen them.braw birds...

We saw flock of waxwings here in Peterborough 12 days ago. They were lovely.



lisa and john

Thursday 10.30am 25th November 2010 I looked out the window and saw 8 lovely little birds on the telegraph pole and recognised them as waxwings what a pleasure to see. Unfortunately they were chased off by a crow and I did not see them again. Yvonne

Sunday 28th November. Heavy snowfalls in Aberdeenshire for the past three days and I have a Waxwing in my garden! He - I think it's a 'he' ( very black throat and sharp margin between the black and the lavender-dove feathers of the upper chest ) is happily sitting in my Viburnum opulus, slowly stripping the berries. He's been here for about 2 days now, and it's the first time I've ever seen a Waxwing in our garden.

It's the first time any of my 'regular' birds have seen one, either. The blue tits and chaffinches keep going to look at him, but he's not taking much notice of them. He's bigger, and he's not afraid! What a lovely bird!

We have had a full scale invasion here on the Wiltshire/Berkshire border, as I drive to the main road 100's fly from the berry trees. Never seen anything quite like it

Six waxwing seen stripping rowan tree of all its berries in our village just north of Bristol on 16th/17th December.

Having never seen a waxwing I was very excited to see around 15 while I was trudging through the snow in Heath, Cardiff. That’s another one ticked off my list!

I have acroos from my home about 24 waxwings, they are feeding on the Rowan Trees, they have been there on and off for a couple of days.

3 waxwings on rowan tree haslingfield high street 1300hrs 20/12/10

2 small flocks on Isle of Wight - the flock i've seen in Sandown is 23 but others report around 30 strong and the flock reported in East Cowes is apprx 40.



They are absolutely beautiful!

Untill Sunday I had never seen a waxwing, my mum found one which we think had hit a window so we were able to have a good look at it, beautiful bird. Unfortunately didn't survive.



It was only because of this that when I parked up at Sainsburys in Burton on Trent yesterday afternoon the tree above me full of 'starlings' intrigued me with their unusual song, I looked up to see around 50 crested birds! Very excited I realised they were waxwings. I then watched them fly around a while and also saw them bathing in snow on a roof opposite!

I am staying at a friends house in Westward Ho! N. Devon and saw this lovely little bird. It took me ages to find out what it was but eventually we all agreed it was a waxwing. He was really enjoying the berries and stayed all day. I wanted to know more about the waxwing and was delighted to find this site giving me so much detail. I was particularly pleased when looking at the map that so few have been seen in this area. Unfortunately, I dont have a decent camera and the image I took on my mobile is not good. I really hope he will be back tomorrow.

I saw a flock of about 20 waxwings on 11.12.10 sitting in a tree in Cardiff Bay. I have never seen them here before!

saw a few waxwings in Barham near Canterbury kent.27th dec 2010 very pretty.

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Bridgend, South Wales.27 Dec 2010 and continuing today.

1 Waxwing feeding on Cotoneaster Berries in my front garden.

It arrives with 4 other Thrush coloured but Starling sized birds with reddish brick coloured body patches below the wings and sort of facial mask like stripes?

We had a sighting of 15 waxwings on a rowan tree in our garden in Sleaford this morning between 0815 and 0830. They were easily recognised by white wing bars, yellow tail feathers and crests. Weather conditions overcast, 5 degrees C. We were delighted by this first sighting.

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wonderful sight this afternoon- waxwing in garden, so unusual as we're in Aberavon, South Wales on the beach. quite a brilliant moment, will be looking our for more tomorrow.

we've also got a trio of blue tits, our robin dweller and thrushes.

in mid october i saw redbrown tail bird which could have been a female redstart.

On Monday 3rd January we had a flock of about 100 Waxwings in our garden. We were surprised to see them as we live in Tongham in Surrey. They stayed for about 10 minutes and just seemed to disappear!

Delighted to see a large flock of Waxwings 30-50, hard to count, in and around my garden in Marchwood near Southampton today 10th january. Never seen them before in this area, they seem to be feeding up on the berries left on the trees,and flocking in the sky Very noisy but a delight to watch

we have had a few visits of up to ten waxwings in thatcham, Berkshire in the last two weeks. happily feeding on the berries in the garden....

I live in Forest Row, East Sussex and was just greeted by a flock of about 80-100 beautiful waxwings this morning- just feeding on berries in the garden. These birds are absolutely fascinating to watch. They only stayed for about half an hour going from berry tree to berry tree and then all left together. My brother managed to get a few photos- https://www.flickr.com/photos/georgelewin/sets/72157625806532874/ Enjoy!

We saw five or six waxwings in our neighbours rowan this lunchtime which was pretty amazing

we saw 30 waxwings sitting on chimney stacks around our street today first time i have seen any around here in walkergate newcastle upon tyne

Just thought I would a comment. Have just seen about 15 -20 waxwings in Ringwood Hampshire. Feeding. Interested?

At about 2pm 30th january 2011, Just leaving The Emerats Stadium after luckily knocking out Huddersfield Town from the FA Cup, we spotted over 30 Wax Wings feeding on rowan berries in Drayton Park Road just before Arsenal tube station. Thought this was quite surprising because they are supposed to be shy and yet they did not seem to mind feeding on relativly low trees whils thousands of football fans filed past. Observed them for about ten mins before they moved on.

At 14:00 we saw about 20 Waxwings feeding from berries on a tree in New Milton Hampshire. This is the first time we have ever seen these birds before. What brought the sighting to our attention was quite a number of people with binoculars / cameras.

I saw 30-40 waxwings in Tivoli Road SE19 about 4pm on 1st February. Noticeable because of the crest - they were sitting in a tree and on the adjacent wires of a telephone pole in the street (in a very built up area - I wonder if they have been in the wonderful West Norwood cemetry, which is close by, or Crystal Palace park, about 1-2 miles away? At a distance I thought they were starlings, but walking closer they looked plumper. I was able to watch them from a distance of about 15 metres. Sadly, I didn't have my camera with me. I took a photo on the phone camera and it's possible to see the crest on the birds on the wire, which were in silhouette, and there is a hint of colour in the birds in the tree, but the picture is of such poor quality it's not really possible to use as confirmation. Exciting!

hi all, waxwings in my street now!

saw them 2 yrs ago how fab.......... about 30 of them

just got binoculars out, def the waxwing.... same tree as 2 yrs ago too.

They also let you get really close, 10 ft away?

We saw a tree with between 20 and 30 waxwings today - 4th February - 14:30 in the car park at the Newbury Retail Park, West Berkshire, just opposite the M&S Food Store! Clearly the waxwings have a good taste in food too:) We were really excited, and the waxwings were clearly identified by their crested tuffs on their heads and bright yellow & red wing colours. Now were hoping that we'll see them in our back garden too since we still have some bushes with winter berries. We watched the waxwings from beneath the tree for around 5 minutes before they were disturbed by a passing car, and they flew away as a flock.

couldnt believe my eyes seen about 30 Waxwings in my back garden this morning (Tollcross,Glasgow) they stayed for about ten minutes then they left looked like they were drinking from the hedges's as there are no buds or berrys on the bushes beautifull birds and first time i have ever seen them close up as usual couldnt find my camera

Just seen about 4-6 waxwings at tops of sycamore and fir trees near centre of Todmorden (Yorks/Lancs border) - kept flying off and returning to same trees for about half an hour, then flew off in what looked like north west direction.

Had a great waxwing day! Had heard there were waxwings around Glasgow and thought I'd missed my chance, but then my partner called me to say there was a flock outside our flat. I raced back home to see about 30 birds perching on the aerials and satellite dishes around our Partick (West Glasgow) tenement. They decimated what remained of the berries on our rowan tree. The two resident song thrushes are looking a bit grumpy at having their dinner nicked, but for me it was the best Valentine's day present ever!

Just seen about 45 waxwings eating berries from the bush in my front garden in Edinburgh

It's taken me over a week to figure out the type of bird I'd seen, but there were 5 or 6 of them on 12th Feb in a berry tree in my road in Purley, Surrey...they are really pretty and quite distinct...I knew I'd not seen anything like them before round here.

Waxwings are certainly in Glasgow! At breakfast time on 21st February we spotted a flock of at least 20 in the trees in a tenement garden in Partick and yes there are still berries left ...

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I live in Stourbridge West Midlands and have never seen Waxwings, Until this morning that is. Circa seven birds on a telegraph wire taking turns to fly down and take berries from a tree, species not known. Got some good photographs. Is this a rare sighting this far west?.

I was fortunate to see a flock of 12-15 Waxwings, whilst walking my dogs close to Haydock Park racecourse on 16/03/2011.