Nature Notes

Waxwings those exotic casual visitors are presently in North Devon. January 5, a dull half-lit day suddenly found redemption in my eyes. For quite by chance I spotted twelve of these much hoped for birds in a tree at Roundswell, Barnstaple. It was after 4am when I took the photos so I sent a message to Jay Nicholson, a keen birder and 'snapper', to visit the site the following day and hopefully find both better light and the birds!

His results are represented here.

As a result of berry crop failure in Scandinavia waxwings in their thousands have been crossing the North Sea into Scotland and the eastern side of England since last Autumn. Many of the flocks have filtered out across the country as berry stocks here are decimated.

Sadly, a high proportion of the visitors will never make it back to the extreme NorthEastern Europe breeding grounds from where they originally came.

PICTURES: Jay Nicholson