Officially Awsome!!!!!

25/02/11
With the patch being so good as of the last week, i had decided that after a few days of non birding things i would get to the patch early, but i was shattered so, i awoke at a respectable 10:30....
Straight out the door and into the Lickhill Birch wood.......
Through the front main enterance i started looking around. ( the way i usually bird this wood, is to walk through first, walk to the top and of the wood which adjoines moorhall meadow, have a look at the edges of the wood there, then take as much time as i want walking back through depending on the activity(it is easier to view down the slope than up it!!!), and today was no exeption)
The first walk through revelaed the flock of 60c Siskin from the garden but with about 30 added on, as the total was around 90c Birds, However i was struggling to see any Bramblings or redpolls, I reached the back of the wood, with siskins plastered in every tree, so this was a good place to be..
It was at this point that i heard a familiar call, no chance!!

Back to scanning finches, Ahhh, here is the Redpoll's, as a flock of 20c birds were perched high in one of the populars, Inlcuding a stunning male bird..

And then i heard it again, it cant be!!

It was at this point that i started getting adgitated, i was hearing the call every 10 secs or so now, it seemed to be coming from the pond, so walk back through the wood, and then there is was....

Trilling, and lots of it......

Looked up

WAXWINGS!!!!!!!!!!!

as most of the birds were abscured i ran the remaining 50 metres to the front edge of the wood, look back and there they were, a gorgeous, stunning, amazing flock of a mindnuming 48 WAXWING!!


I rang my dad, and he came down to admire this patch 1st, feeding on a single mistletoe in the centre of a popular 50ft up the tree, They simply perched and dropped down onto the mistletow constantly for about an hour, giving their amazing trill call, with their beautiful crests and amazing charm..

What birds...

They did at one point fly to a tree in someones garden on lickhill estate but soon returned and we watched them for a further 10 minuites before a pair of buzzard flew low over the wood, and the waxwings flew off calling deep into the estate, and they wernt located after that







A short live period of amazingness on the patch.

Funnily enough, it was only 2 or 3 days before that i was mentioning reports of flocks in stourport and was saying it wont be long untill i see one on the patch, How short lived that turned out to be, and not just one, but 48!!!!!!

At a few points at least 2 Brambling were perching in the same scopeview as the waxwings, 2 major oatch bird, sitting right next to each other, it cant get much better than that.....
What a start to the day....
MB