NORTH DOWNS & BEYOND

Walking into work this morning (I normally drive) I found not one, but two Waxwing flocks. Both were in Cheam and both were enormous - well, three and two respectively. That'll do for me. My next trick will be an Arctic Redpoll mobbing a Snowy Owl that is distracted by a Gyr Falcon passing overhead. Three good North Downs ticks there!

I've whined on about how, since my initial November burst of Waxwings, the little sods have eluded me. It got to the stage where my wife and daughters asked me, every time I came into the house, whether or not I'd seen a Waxwing. And each time they looked upon my crestfallen face, with my head shaking in shame and defeat, they felt a little of the hurt themselves. This morning a family outing beckoned - walking boots, anoraks, dog and lead, etc - and as we got in the car my wife asked me if there were any Waxwings nearby. With my bottom lip trembling, I told her that the Frenches Road flock (in Redhill) were still on offer. I had dipped on them in December. "Right!" she declared, "Let's go before our walk!" Result!! This time, on arrival, 35 of the little gems were trilling away without the need for any searching. They trilled, they preened, they flew back and forth between the tall trees on one side of the road and a fully laden apple tree in a back gar...

It all started so well. The Waxwing invasion into the south-east began in late November, and I thought I was a top dog when I had one of the earliest in Surrey, a single flying over Sutton. A few days later I strolled up to Epsom Downs to watch a flock that were being faithful to a rowan tree. So far, so good. Then the flood gates opened. There were local Waxwings everywhere - Sutton, Cheam, Belmont, Banstead, Ewell, Wallington, Burgh Heath, Redhill - these places all held flocks. So, never one to pass over a good local bird (or, in these cases, birds ) I went off in search of the trilling jewels. My success rate then plumetted... Belmont: dipped four times on a flock of 40 Cheam: dipped once on a flock of 60 Beddington SF: missed two flyovers by ten minutes having stood in the very same spot for the previous two hours. Banstead: missed fair sized flocks in two locations Redhill: spent two hours waiting for a mobile flock, leaving at 14.20 hrs. They turned up at 14.21 Together wit...

Waxwings, Waxwings everywhere. Down here they are easier to find than Greenfinches. Almost every blog that you visit will entertain you with images (yes Gavin, not photographs!) of the crested little fellas, all lined-up on a tree top like a group of Santa's elves. The only reason that I haven't uploaded any images (sorry Gav, really) of them is that I haven't taken any myself. Now, I usually rally against the ubiquitous on blogs. Every spring we parade pictures ( pictures - just for you Gavin) of Wheatears, violets and Brimstone butterflies as if we are the only bloggers who have thought of doing so. Therefore we all end up with a parade of sameness. However, with Waxwings it's different. Why? Is it because they a good looking? I don't think so. Bullfinches are good looking. So are Goldfinches, but we don't all get click happy with them, do we? Is it down to rarity? To a point, maybe, although they aren't really any rarer than a Common Redpoll this winter....