A.W.Birder: Always on the lookout for fine birds...: Waxwings & Bewick's Swans on the Patch

Thursday 3 January 2013

Waxwings & Bewick's Swans on the Patch

After the tip-off from Zing yesterday about a single Waxwing in Bubwith I decided to take an early morning dog-walk around North Duffield and Bubwith connecting with some great birds. First off were 3 Barn Owls that were busy hunting, a flock of 28+ Whooper Swan, then came Fieldfare and Song Thrush, 2 male Bullfinch, 30 Tree Sparrow and assortment of tits and finches, Jay, and finally the main target, the single Waxwing. Unusually this wasn't given away by its distinctive call but was just sat preening in a bush! I got close to it, but the light was appalling again (it was still early!) so could only manage the following photos (I've tweaked the contrast so they are a bit clearer).

Waxwing

I worked at home today so at lunchtime I shot over to North Duffield Carrs where I was greeted by two Bewick's Swans in amongst the flock of Mute and Whooper Swans. Interestingly these were the same two birds I found back in mid-December - I can tell this because one of them was Darvic-ringed. Today I saw Craig, the Natural England Warden who'd actually been able to read the code.

Turns out it was ringed in November 2007 in The Netherlands (Darvic ring number yellow on left leg 702). This bird was then seen at Slimbridge WWT in 2007 and 2008 and was then seen at North Duffield in January 2009, December 2009, and February 2010 but was not reported from either here, or Slimbridge in the winter of 2010/2011 or 2011/2012.

This really shows the value of darvic-ringing/colour-ringing! I only got a 'record-shot' of the birds today, and have included a couple of pictures from last time I saw the birds.