Wednesday, November 09, 2016
We drove east on this very cold day and took a walk in Rosehall forest, where two goldcrests, a treecreeper, and a stonechat were the best sightings. Driving back, we spotted light-coloured, chunky birds in a tree near a house, and drove on a bit to a forest track where we could park and look back at seventeen waxwings without being intrusive.
The birds were in an alder tree; but maybe someone came out of the house, because they took off and flew towards and past us, then headed back and landed right next to the car.
They sang for a while; I took some video footage but the new camera is not as good as the old Nikon P90 for picking up sound. After a while they fell silent, gave us some old-fashioned looks, and then began to preen.
When a car went by, they flew back towards the house where there was, no doubt, a berry tree of some sort.
Seen from the car: a male crossbill on top of a spruce; and a drake goldeneye on a roadside loch.
// posted by Christine @ 9:38 AM 
