Stepped out side my house...

[Robert S J Smith]

On my way to work and heard and unfamiliar call and looked up and found a bird in silhouette I didn’t recognise. Thankfully I had my bins round my neck as I need them for work as I work at NWT Holme Dunes, raised them up to find sitting on the Horse Chestnut tree at the top of our road 1,2,3,4,5…6 Waxwings!!!

A bird I had dreamed of seeing but had never expected one let alone 6 to turn up outside my house on the edge of Kings Lynn. then took off and flew a bit further away and sat with some Starling at the top of some Ashes.

However, minutes later they again took off but this time landed in the Rowan which was right in front of me and my home and started to feed. As I had never seen them before I watched then through my bins (no need for a scope that’s how close they were) for a while to take them in before rushing to grab my camera.

I decided to phone my sighting into Rare Bird Alert so others could see these cracking birds. Watched/photographed them for 2 more hours before I realised I was supposed to be at work although I did ring up to say I was going to be late. In the end I was only two and a half hours late and totally worth it.

I have attached my favourite image I took today and will be up at dawn tomorrow to see if they have stuck around.

Regards,

Robert

[david156]

As I said on flickr, well done.

Keep an eye on that tree, Waxwings sometimes tend to stay near a food source until its all gone.

Cheers David

[Robert S J Smith]

Yes will do as said above going to look for them from dawn tomorrow.

Had a look at some trees just round the corner of my house and the trees were brimming with berries...

[Deb London]

What a brilliant piece of luck!

[Jackaroo]

I had a similar experience on Sunday afternoon when I decided on the spur of the moment to nip up to Lairds Loch in Perthshire in the hope of getting a little closer to any buzzards hanging about, but by the time I got there the weather had turned slightly and become a little overcast.However I persevered and trekked up one of the hills around the loch. Not a thing was stirring till I spotted a flock of something settle on a bare birch about 100 metres or more away. I was a bit fed up by now and even with my bins I couldn't make out what they were, so it was more in hope than expectation that I fired off the camera in their direction(300mm at max zoom on a breezy overcast day) When I got home I dumped the pix in the p.c. Imagine my surprise when I cleaned up the shots in photoshop(only recently re-instated on my p.c.) I found I'd spotted my very first waxwings ever. Though, technically they were too far off for me to make out. Still chuffed though,the pix are a little dire but if I can isolate a half decent one I'll stick it in my images. Bit embarrassing though with the quality of the pix I've seen lately.
The upshot of the day was that I came down the hill in the dark and landed in a ditch so any result at all has to be a bonus.

[Robert S J Smith]

just looked out the lounge window and can see that there is still 1 waxwing feeding in the rowan tree opposite.

[Jackaroo]

Originally Posted by Robert S J Smith

just looked out the lounge window and can see that there is still 1 waxwing feeding in the rowan tree opposite.

Lucky sod! Our rowans are mostly gone and I had to tramp a coupla miles for a far from satisfactory sighting. Jealous or what?







These are the best I could get.

[Jackaroo]

Just realised how silly this post is. My experience was hardly "just outside my house". Sorry, should've put them somewhere more appropriate. Jackaroo.