I may have got this waxwing thing cracked - maybe.
On New Year's Eve, on the outskirts of Northampton, I saw a flock of 123 waxwings. They were sitting in the top of a tree and small groups would fly off and then they or others would return. People were walking past on the pavement underneath and the waxwings were cool about it. They twittered and burbled in the tree top. Not quite the last birds I saw in 2010 but a good way to end the year.
And then yesterday at Cheltenham racecourse, after the second race (where Oscar Whisky was pretty impressive, and I wished I had backed him but I thought the odds were too short, and, by the way, the ground will be very different at the Festival in March) I saw a distant flock of birds fly to the top of a tall tree. If it hadn't been a waxwing year then I might have assumed that they were starlings, but even at a distance I thought that they seemed 'waxwing possibles'. And they were 14 waxwings - a good racecourse tick, and on a day when I didn't have a bet (and so didn't lose a penny) a good start to the new year.
And this year will see me pass a significant milestone - at the end of March I will have completed 25 years at the RSPB and more than half of that time will have been as Conservation Director. It has been great, and it continues to be great, but I feel it is time to look for new challenges and so I will be leaving the RSPB in April. So there are probably fewer than another 100 more blogs in me on this site!
Some time after Oscar Whisky returns to Cheltenham and the jumping season's traditional end at Sandown at the end of April will see my last blog here. But between now and then there is plenty to write about, plenty of nature conservation to get done and maybe even plenty of waxwings to be seen?
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Oh Mark that is sad you are going , I have met you a few times and such a nice person you are , you will be very much missed by a lot of people . Hopefully you are going to be doing something in the conservation line , whatever you do I am sure you will do it well , my best wishes to you and Happy New Year (I know you are not going yet but) . So glad you ended your 2010 on a Waxwing high I have yet to see them although they are in Petersfield , it is my New Year resolution to hunt them down !!!
Valerie