Wednesday 19 January 2011

Wednesday 19th January 2011 - out and about

Well it has been a good day really. It started with a Kingfisher sitting nicely out in the open in the winter sunshine by the side of the large pond in Woughton on the Green in Milton Keynes. I'd seen this bird all last winter sitting in this same tree day in day out, and I did spare it a thought during last years cold snap when all the water froze over  for weeks. It's incredible that such a delicate little bird could survive such hardships, as it couldn't have fed properly for quite a while. In the afternoon I had to nip into Kingston and after I couldn't find any sign of Mondays Waxwings yesterday I didn't really have much hope in finding them today. Luckily for me I was mistaken and a large flock of Waxies could be seen behind the old Kingston Tavern pub and in the trees of the staff car park. I parked up passed the pub and walked back, following a path that lead behind the pub and was amazed to find the whole area full of birds. Waxwings were feeding on the berries in the bushes and resting in the taller bushes behind them, I managed a count of 200 and then a few more joined them but I can't be sure how many. As I walked around a bit further I noticed that a lot of them seemed to on the pub roof and it soon became apparent that they were drinking form the guttering. I did manage a couple of clips on my phone, but as you can see from the quality they're not up to much............its not easy holding a pair of binoculars with a mobile phone pressed up against the eyepiece trying to digibin a vid of a target that won't stay still ha ha ha. Still I gave it my best shot, at least you can just about see what's going on despite my handshake!!
                                          Waxwings Drinking, Kingston, Milton Keynes


                                            Waxwings Drinking, Kingston, Milton Keynes


Unfortunately very soon after I witnessed this something spooked them and they all flew off into trees around the car park. Still and incredible show though.

2 comments:

  1. I've not seen a single Kingfisher at my local, since before Christmas. I fear the worst for them.

    A great sight to see so many Waxwings. I might try and get up there in the morning.

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  2. Good luck I hope you get them, they're very mobile and seem to be commuting between Kingston and Monkston. I agree with you totally with the Kingfishers, its amazing that any of these birds can survive such hardships. One of the birds most notably hit this year in Northants is Stonechat. A couple of years ago you could go to sites where Stonechat would have been a dead cert in winter, but this year there has been none at all.

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