This afternoon I spent a very pleasant couple of hours watching a flock of 14 waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) a beautiful and enigmatic bird that I’ve mentioned before on this blog. This flock has been hanging around the village of Roade just outside Northampton since the 29th December, feeding on a crop of rowan berries (Sorbus aucuparia var.) and amusing the locals. As usual they were very confiding and unperturbed by neither traffic nor twitchers (which at one point, I was told, numbered around 40 people). Feeding with the waxwings were a couple of blackbirds that may well have travelled down from the far north with them. Here’s a few pictures:
Prof. Jeff Ollerton - ecological scientist and author 
Lovely! Well done you 😊 Lx
What a lovely sight. I’ve never seen them in the UK, no wonder the twitchers were there. We once had a flock of red wings and fieldfares in West London, probably thanks to the vast fields around Osterley park and the M4.
Love them! We usually get Cedar Waxwings instead of Bohemians…but they’re very similar
Interesting to see that they are feeding on Sorbus with cream-coloured fruit. Some horticulturists think that Sorbus with white or cream fruit are less attractive to birds. But maybe that’s just common garden birds!
Hmmm, interesting point Mike, I’d like to see that idea tested in an experiment.
Lucky you, we had waxwings in Devon about five years ago and they were fascinating to watch. Perhaps you can have a word with the Northampton birds, there are plenty of berries down here ….
I’ll see what I can do 🙂
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