On Monday morning, before I had left the office, I noticed that someone had reported a small flock of Waxwings in the village of Finstown, over in the West Mainland. The description of the location was 'across the road from the village shop'. Now, this statement made me chuckle because, when we lived south, a handy piece of urban fieldcraft to use in the finding of Waxwings was to visit a supermarket car park. The landscaping of such places always seems to use trees and shrubs which attract these colourful and dapper Winter visitors from Scandinavia. So, for Waxwings to appear next to Baikie's Stores sort of fits the modus operandi for the species!
Here's Google Streetview's view of the location from 2014.
When, later in the morning, I happened to be driving through Finstown, a glance to the right at the treetops brought the pleasant surprise of several Waxwings silhouetted against the sky.
And here's a post from a colleague who is on leave this week so had time to turn up with a camera on Monday. Well done, Alastair!
1 comment:
Thanks for the link Graeme. It was handy to nip in to the garden, away from the road, and photo these from the doorstep, so to speak. Always a welcome sight. The apples on sticks in my own garden are being scoffed by Blackcaps, Starlings and Blackbirds,I'm awaiting a more colourful visitation homewards.
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