Always look on the wild side of life: A perfect end to the year...

Sunday 30 December 2012

A perfect end to the year...

I don't think I will ever get bored of waxwings! They are just the most wonderful birds! For me they aren't just a tick off a list, I just want to go searching for them again and again!

Last time we saw them they were 10 minutes walk from the house, today however we set off to Tesco in Whitstable as I had heard on the grapevine (twitter) that they had been feasting on the berries there for the last few days.

I spotted them as we were driving along, all sitting in a tall tree, so we parked at Tesco and walked along the road. It seemed much further along walking, and just as we heard them call they all flew off, back the direction we had come from! Determined to see them, we walked back on ourselves. I'm sure people driving past must have thought we were right weird people taking photos at the side of the road! Alas we couldn't care less as we spotted them sitting in a very tall tree! We stood and waited a while and to our delight they decided to descend upon the berry laden hedge 1 metre from us!! We got absolutely fantastic views of them! They are much smaller when you see them without a camera lens or bins! I got some photos but I was so excited that they aren't quite in focus. That'll teach me! It was also very windy so they were flapping around a bit and were quite flighty and before we knew it a runner scared them off! We walked back down to Tesco to find them in a tree there! Luck seemed to be on our side today! There were a few other birders tracking them down and also some non birding onlookers wondering why there were lots of people standing in the car park with cameras and bins etc! Could have watched them for hours longer, but my fingers were cold and the sun had disappeared so decided to head home. Very enjoyable morning though!

Here are a few of the photos I took...