New page

I've added a new page entitled 'Outside the Patch'. On it I shall write reports & post photos from outside my Ouse Valley patch.
To start with, are some photographs & a short video of the Waxwing flock at Cambourne.

Enjoying the winter sunshine

The early news of the day was the return of the waxwings. A single in the orchard behind the house was followed by two in the bushes by the doctors' surgery. Unfortunately, neither of the sightings were by me :-( despite extensive searching. I was lucky enough, however, to see a peacock butterfly that flew over my head & landed on the front of my neighbour's house. So, it wasn't just me enjoying the early sunshine.
The usual suspects were on the garden feeders - house sparrows, house sparrows & more house sparrows!

Garden birds

Collared doves & woodpigeons seem to be ever-present. Best of the morning's sightings for me, however, was a single buzzard being mobbed by a pair of crows as it passed over the village.

Common Buzzard being mobbed by two Carrion Crows

During the afternoon, as Holly was at her Wildlife Explorers group Christmas party, I took a walk around Fen Drayton Lakes. Swavesey Lake held a good array of dabbling ducks, including gadwall, shoveler, wigeon & teal.

Swavesey Lake

When I reached Covell's Drain, I decided to head along the side of the Trout Pond & Far Fen Lake to the Bailey Bridge. Possibly a mistake as had I carried along to Ferry Lagoon, I might have found the Slavonian grebe that was reported there later! However, I did see a grey wagtail & four Egyptian geese amongst a very large flock of Canadas & greylags.

Covell's Drain

Canada Geese

My species total for the two hour walk was 55. Not bad at all :-)

Waxwings

During the last week, we have been lucky enough to have a few waxwings scattered around the village. The first one was found by me on the morning of 6th December & that afternoon there were two in the same location.

Waxwing, by me

Apologies for the very poor quality of the picture, but it was the only one I managed to take before the bird flew off. Here's what it should look like.....

Waxwing, not by me!

The following day, there were three birds in the orchard behind my house & by the weekend, the number was up to six. The last sighting that I am aware of, was two on 10th December. As you can see from the above photo, waxwings love berries, particularly those of sorbus trees. So, at the weekend, I bought and planted a sorbus hupehensis 'Pink Pagoda' in the back garden. Here's hoping it will produce lots of berries in future years!