The weather has been much more like Spring than Winter over the last four days, this has enabled me to be out and about.
On monday I went to some of my local patches, whilst in the car park of one of my local reserves I got talking to a couple who had travelled down to Tee-side from Newcastle.
One of them was a semi- professional photographer, so again I was able to ask all sorts of questions on how to achieve the best shots!
They were looking for some of the rare and scarce visitors that were frequenting the area. As I knew were the birds had been sighted we spent most of the day travelling around to a numbers of reserves.
We parted company after an excellent day birding and swapped some contact details.
I recieved an email from them on the 03/03/2010 informing me that Waxwings had been sighted in Norton feeding in gardens for the last four days.
This is the village were I was born and bred and 5 minutes down the road from were I live, on wednesday I left the house early to go and Twitch my first bird.
I knew the location and arrived to find a few Twitchers already there! I enquired if the birds were around.
No I was informed, I had already decided that I would stay put and wait! I have only seen one other Waxwing and was relishing the opportunity to see another one in my home village.
Several more Birders and Twitchers arrived some travelling several hundred miles to catch a glimpse of a Waxwing.
After seven hours, all the people that arrived after myself had now gone and everyone kept saying the birds had moved on.
I thought another hour, then I will make a move. I then caught sight of a bird and I knew it was the bird I wanted to see!
( I JUST HOPE THE PHOTO'S STAY PUT!!!!!!!!! )
My patience paid off at the end of nearly an eight hour wait! I was even more lucky the following day as I returned to catch another glimpse of this stunning bird it was feeding again.
I was also fortunate to meet some of the residents who were absolutely magnificent and I couldn't thank them enough for there hospitality!
I returned today with a number of photo's that I gave to them.
Regards Buzzard
Nature Is Amazing - Let Us Keep It That Way
When I looked at this post yesterday evening the photos were not showing. I'm happy to say this morning I can see them and what stunning photos they are. Thanks Buzzard for your persistence.
What fantastic and exotic looking birds Waxwings are. It's long been my ambition to see one but I'm not into twitching so I'll have to be patient and hope they come to me. One day one day (sigh).
TJ
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Tony
My Flickr Photostream
Unknown said:It's long been my ambition to see one but I'm not into twitching so I'll have to be patient and hope they come to me. One day one day (sigh).
Hi TJ,
it was only because they were local that I though I would chance my hand and see if they were still about.
After the four days they had been seen, I thought they would have moved on! They were numerous other species that I enjoyed watching and I had the additional attraction of the local village were I had a walk around to break the day up.
It is something that I have never done in all my years birding, waiting to see if a bird returns!
Buzzard
Wow, 2 of the pictures came back and they are truly stunning. Thank you for having such patience so we could share in these amazingly beautiful birds.
Sarah:)
I've learned that I still have a lot to learn...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bramble67/
Bloody Hell, Buzzard. I've never seen anything like these birds before. No wonder you decided to have a twitch for the first time ever. Wonderful photos, and what a bird! Thank you for posting these - and so glad I can see them. Please excuse my language, but it is what I said out loud when I saw the pictures!
Cheers, Linda.
See my photos on Flickr
Buzzard said: Hi TJ, it was only because they were local that I though I would chance my hand and see if they were still about. After the four days they had been seen, I thought they would have moved on! They were numerous other species that I enjoyed watching and I had the additional attraction of the local village were I had a walk around to break the day up. It is something that I have never done in all my years birding, waiting to see if a bird returns! Buzzard
Sorry Buzzard, it wasn't intended as any sort of criticism, implied or otherwise. I only meant that I wouldn't go half way across the country to see them. If they were local then I would almost certainly do a local twitch - I guess that makes me a bit of a hypocrite.
The remaining pictures have now appeared - absolutely fabulous. Thanks again for sharing them.
Unknown said:Sorry Buzzard, it wasn't intended as any sort of criticism, implied or otherwise. I only meant that I wouldn't go half way across the country to see them. If they were local then I would almost certainly do a local twitch - I guess that makes me a bit of a hypocrite.
Hi TJ, no need to for any kind of apology!
I used the term twitch as I thought it was the best way to describe my day!
Susan H said: Bloody Hell, Buzzard. I've never seen anything like these birds before. No wonder you decided to have a twitch for the first time ever. Wonderful photos, and what a bird! Thank you for posting these - and so glad I can see them. Please excuse my language, but it is what I said out loud when I saw the pictures!
No problem Sparrow, I was hoping for this kind of response!
I feel very privilaged to have seen them, I know a lot of people wouldn't get to excited about seeing a Waxwing!
Due to the irregular migration of these birds, you either get vast numbers turning up or very few!
I'm sure there will be certain areas of this country were they are sighted on a regular basis during their visit between Nov -Mar.
I'm pleased that a few of you have managed to see the photo's, I have reloaded them three times upto now.
Buzzard said:I feel very privilaged to have seen them, I know a lot of people wouldn't get to excited about seeing a Waxwing!
Hi Buzzard,
I feel very privileged to see personal photos of them rather than in a book!! I can just imagine how you must be feeling.
Here's a bit of trivia for you. Waxwings get their name from those "waxy" red blobs on their wings (which are shown very nicely in the photos). The "wax" doesn't appear until the birds reach maturity.
JBNTS
Every day a little more irate about bird of prey persecution, and I have a cat - Got a problem with that?
Blimey Buzzard - they are cracking photos! (I think I am going to cry now!!!!!). I have to confess OH and I took off like rats up drainpipes yesterday. We were walking along by our local river when OH bumped into someone he hadn't seen for a number of years. I went from being irritated at the gossip going on between the two (noise causing birds to go silent) to being all ears when the magic words "Have you photographed the Little Egret yet?" were spoken. An olympic fast runner had nothing on me at that point - despite the arthritis!!!!!
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!