The Lincolnshire Bird Club

The official figures for the number of individual sites (not sightings) reporting Waxwings over the last ten winters in Britain are:

2001/02....................................... 113
2002/03....................................... 687
2003/04....................................... 645
2004/05....................................... 1,915
2005/06....................................... 572
2006/07....................................... 188
2007/08....................................... 175
2008/09....................................... 1,779
2009/10....................................... 242

and for this past winter 2010/11, there have been many thousands of birds reported from several thousand sites: it could well be that the recent irruption (or invasion) has been the largest ever recorded. In the early days of the Autumn 2010 irruption, over 3,000 Waxwings were reported in one day in Scotland alone, with many smaller flocks along the English east coast.

With the growing frequency of irruptions of Waxwings into Britain in the last ten years, it may be that the proliferation of supermarkets and their car parks and their abundant berry trees, plus an obvious planting spree of attractive berry trees in new housing estates, are readily available food source facts that are becoming hard - wired into Waxwing winter dispersal strategies. That proposition certainly provides food for thought for birders too, for are we in fact witnessing a behavioural change in a species' habits?

Over the years, many Waxwings have been ringed in Britain and especially so in 2010 in Scotland as they came through in their thousands. Mark Grantham wrote recently (Feb '11): "There are actually very few recorded movements of birds back to Scandinavia and beyond, but considering they will be disappearing into a very large expanse of forests, this isn't too surprising. Currently only 21 British - ringed Waxwings have been found abroad, including 5 in Sweden, 3 in Finland and 2 in Russia".

"Birdguides" has reported a record of one Waxwing ringed as an adult male in Aberdeen on 31/03/05, during the large irruption of 2004/05. It was killed by a cat the following February on 15/02/06 in a village in the Ural Mountain range and north of Kazakhstan, 3714 Km north-east of its ringing location the previous winter.......and closer to Mongolia than Aberdeen.

Up to the middle of the 19th Century, the breeding grounds of the Waxwing were considered so remote and in such a vast, virtually unexplored area of Arctic Europe, difficult if not impossible of access, that the first documented Waxwing nest was not recorded until 1856.

Fast forward some 150 years and recently it has been possible to book a 2-week trip (in May/June) with a British bird tour company (eg "Birdfinders" and "Celtic Bird Tours") where "species to be searched for include (Bohemian) Waxwings on their breeding grounds in the extensive taiga forests". Perhaps some of our more intrepid "Birdguides" subscribers have braved the inevitable hordes of mosquitoes and have actually been on such a trip?

By January 2011, Lincolnshire's stock of Hawthorn and Rowan berries had virtually all gone, not only due to the feeding activities of Waxwings but also of native and winter Thrushes. I always found it quite moving to see bewildered Mistle Thrushes valiantly but vainly defending their prized berry tree against the overwhelming odds of a Waxwing onslaught. From January 2011, Lincolnshire's stock of Cotoneaster berries then became the main Waxwing target. A familiar name in garden shrubs, there are only 3 or 4 Cotoneaster species which are tall enough to be cultivated as trees. Their berries have a brilliance and generosity in numbers that can produce a spectacular display.......a magnet for Waxwings. The Weeping Cotoneaster (Cotoneaster hybridus pendulus) and Cotoneaster frigidus 'Cornubia' are the most often planted of the tree Cotoneasters, and the ones which Waxwings have been stripping bare of berries over the winter throughout Lincolnshire.

The standard feeding procedure for Waxwings at a berry site is:
a. arrive from wherever into their perching tree
b. swoop down in a smash and grab action to feed on the berry tree
c. return to the perching tree (b and c may be repeated several times)
d. depart in haste from the berry tree/perching tree

Dedicated and serious Waxwing chasing can be a mostly solitary pastime inasmuch as one has to be ready to set off on a trip at short notice, eg. acting on news from an up-to-date website report or a telephone call, and without being able to give anyone else much, if any, warning. Further, one must put in several hours of travelling and waiting just to see the one species.... on repeated occasions, and notorious for being 'elusive'. Not many birders fancy visiting on numerous occasions McDonald's or supermarket car parks, busy street corners and main roads, brandishing binoculars, cameras and telescopes and being jostled by (? interested) passers-by; or even sitting in a car for two or three hours at a time and gawping at a solitary bare branched perching tree or a nearby berry source in case the birds happen to fly in.... which sometimes they don't, of course.

So it is particularly enjoyable when the solitary nature of Waxwing chasing can be relieved by meeting up with company at the actual stakeout, and I've enjoyed the company of many LBC members and non-LBC birders over the winter. I've also had conversations with countless non- birding people, including mothers pushing prams, shoppers, family groups, postmen, security men, cyclists, car drivers, van drivers, etc, who have approached me to enquire and to talk to me: Waxwing chasing is certainly one way of meeting people!

My own Waxwing tally details were:
Specifically recorded and targetted Waxwing trips....79
Successful....37, with each one being recorded in the LBC Sightings section
Dips....42 ..

covering the 6-month calendar trip period from 9th November 2010 (Carlton Centre Lincoln..7 Waxwings) to 16th April 2011 (Colney,near Norwich..c70 Waxwings). Unfortunately, I was slowly developing a Hernia over the Autumn and early Winter period which led to a hospital operation on 10th February with no trips possible for three weeks (6th - 27th February)....thus missing a number of Waxwing sighting opportunities.

I was successful at 23 different sites : 21 in Lincs, 1 in Leics and 1 in Norfolk. We won't dwell on the 42 Dips other than to say that they were scattered all over Lincolnshire. With a few Waxwing flocks remaining in Britain into May, there is still a chance of yet further sightings in Lincs. One of the heart-warming experiences of Waxwing watching has been when non-birding passers-by take a genuine interest in these distinctive, colourful and famously approachable birds and in the outline facts one gives them. It is even more heart-warming when one can help a birder of many years' experience to actually see Waxwings for the very first time.

I particularly remember one occasion in Grantham in March while I was watching the Kenilworth Road flock. A man approached me and asked if the birds I was watching were Waxwings. I told him they were and offered him my binoculars to have a better look. He looked at the Waxwings for every bit of 10 seconds and then said that he was off......"to get Dave, a close friend who was a very keen birder of some 15 years' standing but had 'never ever' seen Waxwings". Ten minutes later, a car braked sharply nearby and out jumped pony-tailed Dave and his thoughtful friend, Keith. Well, honestly, Dave watched that Waxwing flock with such obvious delight, repeatedly giving Keith the thumbs-up sign and he even claimed to have seen the eponymous waxy wingtips. I swear his toothy grin from ear to ear lasted without a break the full fifteen minutes the birds stayed around.

Then there was the occasion when I had speedily reported the Waxwing flock at the UPS Depot in Lincoln. I had seen them at c12.45 and had put the post on the LBC web at 1.20 thus giving one LBC member sufficient time to get to the stakeout and record his very first Waxwings. He was courteous enough to put a post on the LBC website later:
"Waxwing has always been a 'bogey' bird of mine, believe me Freddy. I had given up on ever seeing one, let alone 40+ in one spot. I have been birding for over 40 years and have always been in the wrong place at the wrong time with that particular bird. Sometimes you just need a bit of luck....and help!! A great appreciative post!

Talking of 'help'....help is what I have received in enormous amounts over the winter and spring with numerous birders putting their Lincs Waxwing sightings on the LBC, Lincsbirders and "Birdguides" websites. Their cooperative actions have enabled me to home in on some birds with the minimum delay and enjoy another sighting. It is also a special pleasure when other birders turn up at the stakeout, too.

The camaraderie and atmosphere at a Waxwing twitch (as at most other birding twitches) can be quite dynamic and electric in its way, especially when Waxwings are on site and performing well when birders arrive. Non-twitchers find it hard to appreciate the buzz and high tension feelings generated at a successful twitch but, believe you me, it is all extremely invigorating and very pleasurable......plus there is a real sense of achievement, especially if it's in a new area which has been successfully reached with the correct site successfully located. It probably harks back in part to 'the thrill of the chase' plus, of course, the real pleasure of seeing a special bird.

We seldom get irruptions in successive years, so when will they return in really good numbers again....will it be two years, will it be five?.....and, now being 78, if I am no longer vertical and of this world, well, hey!....Heaven must have myriads of Waxwings and with my sight and hearing restored to perfection, I could enjoy the spectacle of flocks even 1000 strong, perching in some berry-laden Cotoneaster celestialis and all trilling softly in unison to the accompaniment of a Heavenly Choir singing Schiller's "Ode to Joy" as set to music by Beethoven.......now, THAT is what I call PARADISE.

Freddy