Waxwings at Woburn…

Caught wind of these enigmatic winter migrants whilst visiting relatives on the weekend and jumped at the chance to capture them close by! The Waxwing is definitely one of those poster birds and high on a twitcher’s “tick” list, even non twitcher’s can get excited by their very striking and almost unreal appearance with their silky smooth feathers and punk rock hair-do. These Berry loving creatures travel down from Scandinavia when food supplies run low.

They travel in flocks and tend to arrive in the far north and east of Britain around October time and slowly drift southwards over the course of the winter clearing berry bushes as they go. They tend to prefer ornamental berry trees like Rowan & Cotoneaster which is why you’ll mostly find Waxwings at non-birdy places including car parks and peoples’ gardens.

They’re also extremely obliging so getting a good, close view is easily achieved. The waxy tips on their wings are actually the extended shafts of the feathers, and the number seen will identify the age and sex of the bird, ranging from none on young females to eight on adult males. Extremely pleased we saw them as I’ve wanted to capture them for ages and another life tick on seeing them!

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All photos on this page taken with Canon EOS 7D with 400mm f/5.6L with 1.4x II Extender, MF’d