So it begins....

Some years it doesn't happen at all, some years it can be ok and some years can give you hundreds. What am I talking about? Waxwings. These exotic looking birds breed in the boreal forests of Scandinavia and Russia. In Autumn and Winter they will migrate but only small distances and most do not reach our shores. If, however, their food crop of berries have a poor year then they are forced to migrate in search of it. This results in what is know as a "waxwing year" and large numbers appear on our shores. This year looks to be one of those years with flocks of 100 or more birds already appearing in Scotland. This is typical as they come in via Scotland and then migrate within the UK down south.
I was on a day-trip to Norfolk after two other targets (more of them later) when a report came in of 3 in a village called Kelling, which was only 15 minutes drive away from where I was. As I had already seen my target duck I packed up my gear and headed off. Kelling is a small place on the main coast road and the birds were reported as being by the tea room. I didn't need to find this though as when I got to the village a large group of birders were staring at a tree.

Sitting in the top were three characteristic shapes. Waxwings are pretty much unique on our shores (forgetting a couple of uber-rare cousins) with that crest. In colouration they look muted but have gorgeous highlights. They are normally found where berries occur and often appear in supermarket carparks after cotoneaster berries. Normally they tolerate people well, as this trio did.

For most of the time they just sat up in their tree looking around. Unfortunately this angle together with the really dull sky didn't make for outstanding photos. Occasionally they flew down into the courtyard behind them to feast on the berries, much to the confusion of the lady who lived there. She came out to tidy her cold frame and was greeted by a row of paparazzi lenses!!!!

They just plucked off the berries and swallowed them whole. They would then move back to their tree presumably to let them digest a bit before repeating that all over again.

So why are they called waxwings? The reason is those red-tips to their wing feathers. They look like they have been dipped in wax - which clearly they haven't - but it is a good story. These only occur in adult males like the one in the photo above. The other two birds were juveniles and lacked this. Hopefully this is the start of seeing more of these stunning birds. A flock of a hundred birds in a Tescos car park nearby would be nice....

So what else did I see whilst I was there? My two targets for the day were a duck and a DNA-split chat. Firstly, I went to Sheringham for a king eider. These are rarer relatives of our common eider, annual in small numbers but normally way up North. This moulting male had been in residence off the lifeboat station for a couple of days. I parked up and walked along the promenade to where a small group of 'scopes were pointing out to sea. On flat seas I quickly got onto the only duck out there but it was a long, long way off-shore.

It is on the photo above honest, in the middle!!

Massively cropping this in you can see it is a duck! It is a 1st winter so moving into adult plumage of which you can see a bit. The general structure is eider-like with a much more bulbous beak (trust me on that one!). Over an hour it attracted a stream of admirers as it dived frequently in search of food but if anything it drifted even further away so I never got any decent photos. It did keep us amused though as each new arrival had to be pointed to where it was, not easy on a flat featureless sea!!!
My other target was a Stejnegers stonechat. This is a recent split of the eastern race of our common stonechat. It was close to the other two birds at Salthouse. I walked down the lane to where half a dozen birders were studying a distant bush (there's a theme here!!). I only had to wait a few minutes before a small bird popped up onto a branch.

It is a chat, so cousin  of our stonechats, but has certain subtle plumage differences. To identify properly though you need DNA and poo had been collected from it and sent to Prof Collinson for analysis!! To my mind they look a bit like a cross between a stonechat and a whinchat. It was a pretty windy day though and this was as good a view as I got. It spent the rest of the time I was there low down in reeds giving only subliminal views at best.
So, a good day overall. Three new years ticks and who cannot like a waxwing. I'll leave you though with a couple of shots of some ridiculously tame turnstones on the promenade by the eider. Apparently they eat chips from the tourists!!