WAXWINGS moving south, coming to a car park or street near you!

 After being busy ringing Waxwings for much of November up here in Aberdeen and Elgin it is a tad disappointing to see numbers drop away as a rather patchy rowan crop begins to run out.

There were still a few wee flocks around into December.

Olivier, Edgar, Edit, Mya and Karla Jolly photographed a bunch on the smallest rowan tree in Aberdeen on Sunday 3/12……..!!

And got 3 interestingly diverse colour ringed birds in the flock…………

(B = Blue, G = Green, L = Light Green, O = Orange, R = Red, W = White)

GOR       adM       Ringed  5/11     Kings Gate

OGW      juvF        Ringed  13/11   Elgin     

BBB        adF        Ringed  22/11  Claremont Gardens

(photographs below)

   

                                                                   

GOR was our longest staying bird so far at just under a month until Jenny saw GLR, another bird from the 5/11 catch in her inlaws garden on 5/12.

We’ve now had 13 resightings already (7 local and 6 distant) from that catch of 38 at King’s Gate/Stronsay Drive on 5/11! Our loss is other folks gain though. 

The map below by Euan Ferguson shows all the resightings of colour-ringed birds up to end of November from the ringing in Orkney, Elgin and Aberdeen. A really big thank you to everybody for reporting their sightings, most nowadays accompanied by photographs, some of which are just so close up and sharp they are incredible.

Showing typical lack of flock fidelity and random dispersal, sightings have come from a wide variety of places. A juvenile male was retrapped by ringers away over in the Western Isles in Tobha isgeirnis on 15/11, 2 weeks after ringing in Aberdeen. Many were in the Central Belt and into Northern England. One had reached Northern Ireland 24/11. Most southern birds so far are one in Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, Wales in the west and Boston, Lincolnshire in the east.

RBW juvM  28/11 Motherwell John Agnew  

                   

           

 YNW juvF 30/11 Barnoldswick, E.Lancashire, Kevin Singleton

                                                                   

     

        WR adF 27/11 Knaresborough, Mark Whorley

As mentioned in the last post a Waxwing in the hand is worth two in the bush not only because you get to see all their unique plumage features in real fine detail but other surprises can sometimes be revealed. For example in this invasion a few of the juveniles have still been in body moult, most noticeable around the head, and quite a few of the adults have not been able to complete their wing moult before migrating. This suggests a fairly abrupt, rushed departure, probably driven by a sudden need to find food. Birds need to be in their best condition before undertaking such hazardous journeys as a 400km+ flight across the North Sea but the photo below is one example of several adults ringed this invasion which still had some old wing feathers from last year.   

Above is an adult wing with an old outer primary feather (brown looking) and a partially grown second outer primary feather. In the secondary wing feathers (zoomed in on bottom photo) the first 2 are new and almost fully grown but the inner 4 are old (very ragged looking)

                                                 

                                                         

                                                    

The above 3 photos show a juvenile still in body/head moult with old loose head feather, pins on the throat and chin where new feathers were growing in and a semi naked underwing.

Lots more colour-ring sightings have been coming in during December. WOO at Fenton, Stoke-in -Trent and BOB in Severalls Industrial Park, Colchester trying to out do each others celebratey status as the most photographed colour-ringed Waxwing this winter and BNW, our earliest ever returning bird to the continent, sighted in Denmark on 18/12. We'll post up something early in the New Year. 

And finally some quick Waxwing news from our foreign correspondents. Jane Reid in Trondheim, Norway, "still had a few Waxies hanging on in here" on Monday the 4th December whilst Sam Lopez said "in Spain this winter there had been 4 sightings of 5 birds (that means a flock of 2?!), 3 in Galicia, the first in 19 years, and 1 in the Basque country."

Thank you all very much again for reporting your sightings of colour-ringed Waxwings along with some amazing photographs. Keep up the good work. 

Have a very Merry Xmas and a guid New Year. Hopefully your New Year bird list will kick off with a flock of Waxwings (and a colour-ringed one in it).

Raymond and Grampian Ringing Group