Most wildlife tends to shun civilisation, its usually a given that the further away from humanity you get the more wildlife there is. One nice exception to this is the WAXWING, a winter visitor to the continent that is mainly fund in towns and cities. Maybe because cities are warmer or maybe because of the large amount of exotic bushes and trees laden with berries, they can be found anywhere in the urban environment, and there is no fixed location to where they may be, any place is just as good as any other.
A bit of luck is always needed to find these birds and that was what I had today. Driving down Defoe Road, Ipswich, I looked up at some birds on a telephone wire, and saw the WAXWINGS distinctive crest - which separates them at first glance from the more common STARLINGS. I pulled over had a brief look before racing home for my camera. The flock was around twenty strong, the birds would fly in at twenty minute interludes to rest on the telephone wires before flying down to feed on a berry laden roadside tree before flying off after a couple of minutes later. It was a dingy sodden day so a lot of the photos came out dark and the birds didn't hang around long enough to get the best composition. It also felt a bit unnerving loitering around a housing estate with a big long lens camera, just wondering when the twitching curtains would turn into calls to the police. I joke about the last sentence, but you do have to watch out with photography, a lot of people do seem to take it to heart that you are photographing them, even when you are most definitely not.
Anyway I was going to spend the day at Alton Water, but when it started to snow decided to call it off - annoyingly after that initial flurry it didn't snow again that day, but seeing WAXWINGS more than made up for it. They are an irruption species, some years there are large numbers, sometimes very little. This is a little winter, so far, with few reported so its a good sighting to have.
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