Picture this. Dad and I drive to an industrial estate in Corby, Northamptonshire on the 13th March to park in a pub car park. It’s a pretty chilly and uninspiring afternoon. But we know we’re in the right place. There are men stood on the road side with binoculars and many more in cars. It’s a grotty place, not anywhere decent for wildlife by any stretch. But there has been a report for the last few days and we’re sticking by it.
We stand for about fifteen minutes. Someone else goes for a drive around the estate to scout it out. There are reports from someone in the pub that it’s not been seen in hours. It’s getting late in the year now, and it’s a good day for migration. We lean against a perimeter fence. Cars stream past with music blaring, the joys. I look at Dad and he looks at me, I think it’s time to call it a day.
I scan the tree line one last time. I haven’t seen a bird in what feels like hours. I look up. A single bird flies into the top of a tree. THERE. It’s amazing how fast people with massive lenses and scopes can emerge from cars and out of nowhere it seemed. A Waxwing sits proudly in the wind.
Honestly I couldn’t contain my excitement and neither could everyone around me. A hundred photos were taken of that one bird. There are loads of us on that kerb side now, attracting a lot of attention from passing traffic. I’m watching the bird through my binoculars when it folds up its wings and almost looks like it’s dive bombing towards me. I still laugh now as everyone gasped then. Six metres away the bird lands in a bush laden with berries.
Binoculars and scopes are redundant. Just as it lands it calls as if to say hello. It was a truly fascinating and unbelievable encounter for my first sighting.
The Waxwing stays for a few minutes plucking the berries off the tree before flying off towards the houses. All the pictures I took were done on my phone through my binoculars.
It would have been doubly amazing with fifty Waxwings all in that bush. But the experience of that one on a day when it was 1 of 6 reported in the UK, it was phenomenal.
We hope you had a peaceful Easter Phoenix!
Leanne :)