More Waxies

2 Waxwing in the garden on and off for most of the day.

Waxwings



Not much improvement on the patch with 23 Tufted Duck, 3 Goldeneye, a Fieldfare and 2 Redwing. Though the highlight of the day was undoubtedly 5 Waxwings - 3 in a garden just up the road and 2 very tame ones in my garden.

Waxwings

 



Waxwings in the garden

Non-Birding

No birding done today, but I did manage to see 3 Waxwing at Scatness whilst waiting for the bus, 2 Waxwing at Sandwick seen from the bus and 6 Waxwing in Lerwick feeding on a small cotoneaster outside the Lerwick Hotel.

Waxwings in Lerwick - taken on my phone

Waxwings and.... one of them things

Out on the patch again and the Pied Wheatear is still present along with 2 Northern Wheatears, Barnacle Goose, Pink-footed Goose and 17 Tufted Ducks on the Loch, 3 Song Thrush, 120 Twite and 3 Siskins out on the headland, 3 Robins and a Blackcap were in the gardens, 80 Fieldfare and 60 Redwings were scattered throughout the patch, 2 Waxwing and a Blackcap were in my garden, another Waxwing and a Water Rail was by the bus stop. And the other thing.... a mad looking Lesser Whitethroat on bunker hill, so brown looking that I initially thought it was an Acro! It also had a lot of white in the tail, noticeably short wings and no contrast between the mask and the crown.

Waxwings

Pied Wheatear

Northern Wheatear

Lesser Whitethroat

Other Bits

A few other bits and bobs from Fair Isle -

Pied Flycatcher

Common Redpoll

Waxwing

A Room With a View

This was the view through the living room window from my settee this morning.

The digestive system of Waxwings must be pretty fast working, as fast as this one was eating bits of apple, it was coming out the other end. It must be pretty poor too, I noticed that the Starlings were eating the Waxwing Shit !

A late Blackcap in the garden on Sunday.

Traitors

So, as it's Shetland Waxwing Count this weekend, last night I put two big bags of apples out in the garden, to try and boost the numbers a bit. This morning and no Waxwings, I even played calls to try and bring them in - nothing, after waiting around for a couple of hours I gave up and made a start on the patch. The first birds I saw - Waxwings - 13 of them, they'd jumped ship and were in a garden further down the road - bloody traitors, photos a bit better today though in the lovely sunshine.

Resistance is Futile

I couldn't resist a few more Waxwing shots, being as there are 14 in the garden and it's too wet to do the patch.

Record Equaled

Equaled the patch year-list record of 150 (set in 2010 - see here), with a Yellowhammer at Old Scatness. Elsewhere on the patch there were 6 Waxwings in the garden this morning with 2 remaining until dusk and a couple of Robins and a female Blackcap still kicking around, plus 2 Snow Buntings near West Voe carpark.

Waxwing

Pretty quiet around the patch now with just 2 Robins, a female Blackcap and a Peregrine seen today, but at lunchtime, got a call concerning a Waxwing at Ness Engineering (cheers Russ) so had a quick walk down to see it, got it nailed and then it followed me and ended up in the garden !