Some years are known as waxwing years. These are ones where these beautiful birds which nest in Scandinavia irrupt into the UK in large umbers. This happens when their food source, berries, has a bad year. With their food running short they have to come across the North Sea to find their Winter food. Some years you may get hardly any waxwings though. Before Xmas, Scotland and Northern England had decent numbers, some flocks up to a hundred or more birds. With mild weather only a bare handful came south though. I saw a small flock in Norfolk in December but none have been really around here so far. Consequently, when a dozen or so birds rocked up in Hertford at the weekend they started to draw a good crowd. The weather today was glorious and clear so after the rush-hour had subsided I set off round the M25.
The newswires had them in the car park at Wickes. This may seem strange but it is a classic habitat for them. In supermarkets and industrial parks lots of berry-bearing trees are often planted. Waxwings love them and are also pretty forgiving when it comes to crowds and disturbance. When I got there a small crowd had already gathered in the car park but of the birds there was no sign. Fortunately Costa coffee on site supplied warming teas as we waited. The bush where they had been feeding still had berries and they tend not to leave till it is stripped. As time went on though we were getting increasingly concerned they had moved off overnight. The crowd grew to about 20 and even Lee turned up but still no sign. Finally a black car came into the car park and pulled up right by us. "You lot after the waxwings? They're in the Meads Way industrial estate by the plumbers merchant" or words to that effect. Cue a mass exodus of birders and their cars, rather reminiscent of a Le Mans start. The other site was probably only 30 seconds waxwing flight away but 5 minutes drive. As soon as I got to the site I could see two things. A berry laden tree and birders with cameras and binoculars pointed at it. The flock had been located.
There was one tree and it was absolutely laden with berries. The waxwings initially were moving from a nearby tree onto it and gorging down the berries.
As normal they did not seem to be too bothered by the gathering crowd, often perching in the tree above our heads before moving in to feed. There was a problem though - we were in a very busy industrial estate. Over the three hours of so I was there a succession of light and heavy trucks, workmen, grass cutters, Virgin Media vans and people going off to lunch arrived at the most inopportune moments. The birds kept being flushed off the tree and flying off a few hundred yards to wait till it got quiet. Once they did go back to Wickes car park but only for long enough for us to get back there before they left and came back to their berry tree. I wasn't too distressed about this as the Wickes car park was even busier and the photography was more challenging as well.
Back at their tree in the Mead estate they had another problem to deal with as well - a local pair of mistle thrushes. They clearly regarded the area as being their property and initially were very aggressive to the waxwings when they landed.
Eventually they seemed to realise that they liked slightly different trees and by the afternoon the thrushes had calmed down. A pattern started to develop. The waxwings would retire to a line of poplars a few hundred yards away. From there they could see the tree whilst they digested their latest meal. Every 15 minutes or so the flock, or a sub-section of them, would come back. Normally a lone bird came first and sat in the next door tree calling.
This was the sign for the others to come down and a frantic minutes gorging on the berries ensued before they flew back to their poplar trees.
As you can see, there have to quite acrobatic to get to some of the berries. They can gorge because they stuff the berries into their throat sac before flying off with it bulging like a bag of marbles.
As time was getting on and snow was threatened I gave in one final go for them coming down to feed. The light was so good it was a shame to leave. New birders were constantly arriving as well to join the 4 of us who had been there from the start!!
Eventually I dragged myself away and headed off. Another really good day with a cracking set of birds and a nice set of people to chat to during the quiet times!!! 144 for the year as well, equal best ever January with a week and half still to go.
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