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| Waxwing |
Waxwings are one of the most popular of winter visiting birds that come to the UK. These Scandinavian punk-crested beauties are one of the most sort after birds amongst the British birdwatching community at this time of year. In some years, they will arrive in large numbers and in other years you'd be lucky to see one at all. This last week or two has seen a steady waxwing invasion with small numbers of them being reported along the Norfolk coastline. For the last few days, a flock of six had been seen opposite the tearoom at Kelling, a place Mum and I visit quite often for lunch whenever we visit or visited Cley. So guess where we were today?
When we arrived at Kelling, it wasn't a surprise that the place was packed with cars and people armed with cameras crowding around one side of the tearoom building, all looking up at some bare-branched trees on the opposite side of the road. And there they were. Six waxwings perched together in plain sight. Their jingle-belled calls could be heard as I made my way from the car park to join the crowd. They were just sitting there showing off their crests for me with the light shining perfectly on them. They were making it way too easy for me. But then, they took off to feed on the berries that were in someone's garden for a moment before returning to the same tree again. Inside the tearoom, Mum had found a table beside a window in which we could see the waxwings. Eating lunch while watching waxwings, you couldn't ask for any better. One things for sure, waxwings are doing great for business for this little tearoom.
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| Where's the birds? |
After lunch, we then decided to make a short visit to Cley. When we got to the hides though, the pools seemed pretty empty of birdlife. There was very little around. We gave it a few minutes and we were rewarded with 2 peregrines, a bittern, a marsh harrier, black-tailed godwits, lapwing, teal, shelduck, wigeon and flocks of greylag, brent and pink-footed geese that merged into one super mixed flock.
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| Wigeon |
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| Shelduck |
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| Teal |
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| Pied Wagtail |
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| Brent Geese |
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| Greylags |
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| Pink-footed Geese |
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| More geese! |
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| Peregrine Falcon |
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| Marsh Harrier |
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| Common Darter |
When we arrived at Kelling, it wasn't a surprise that the place was packed with cars and people armed with cameras crowding around one side of the tearoom building, all looking up at some bare-branched trees on the opposite side of the road. And there they were. Six waxwings perched together in plain sight. Their jingle-belled calls could be heard as I made my way from the car park to join the crowd. They were just sitting there showing off their crests for me with the light shining perfectly on them. They were making it way too easy for me. But then, they took off to feed on the berries that were in someone's garden for a moment before returning to the same tree again. Inside the tearoom, Mum had found a table beside a window in which we could see the waxwings. Eating lunch while watching waxwings, you couldn't ask for any better. One things for sure, waxwings are doing great for business for this little tearoom.
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