Mistletoe, thrushes and wings


The belated 'Waxwing Winter' continues in Surrey, with birds on offer at places such as Farnham, Carshalton, Wallington, Redhill, Ashtead, Bookham and Leatherhead. Some of these may be the same flock meandering around the local berry crop, but it would be fair to say that there must be at least a couple of hundred in the county. At most sites the birds are keeping fairly faithful so that any observer wanting their Waxwing fix is able to do so. During the week I went along to Leatherhead to see the 50+ birds which were feeding on (and in) Mistletoe behind the leisure centre. There is plenty of Mistletoe in the area (as can be seen in the pictures above) and the birds spent a lot of time perched out in view, their soft trilling competing with the nearby sub-singing Redwings. A Mistle Thrush did decided to confront the flock, harshly rattling in warning, no doubt defending its patch of Mistletoe. Quite sensibly, even though they outnumbered it 50 to 1, the Waxwings decided to vacate and take up squatting rights in another tree.

A brief warm period saw my first butterflies of the year here in Banstead, several Brimstones and a Red Admiral. To see the earliest of these magnificent insects on the wing in weak sunshine never loses its power.

Comments

Stewart said…
Waxwings are substantially commoner than Mistletoe in Northumberland Steve. 3 years ago I tried planting some of the sticky seed on our Apple. 10 to be precise. Now I have 2 tiny shoots of Mistletoe emerging! A blog post one day...
19 February 2024 at 08:19
Steve Gale said…
I'll swap you some Mistletoe for a few Waxwings then Stewart!
27 February 2024 at 12:10
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