I was mighty miffed last winter. Round our way there weren't any. Nowt. Nothing. Zilch. And another Waxwing no-show would be an utter disaster ! Back in the days of The Observer's Book of British Birds we all drooled over the Waxwing page. Blimey ! Crumbs !! What a Corker !!! Everybody remembers their first one. 100 % Mine was twitched at the Big Supermarket in Windermere .... just the one, but that was good enough. The next step is finding one of your own. So ... there I was one cold winter morning cycling to work, and I suddenly squeaked to a sudden halt. I could hear Waxwings calling. I watched for a few minutes, counted 7 of them, and shot off to work.... and shot back in somebody's car along with several other bandwagoners .. and we got'em ! And the next step is to see LOTS of them .... and a year or two later, I found a huge flock up high in a tree on a blind bend .... parked the car a bit up the road, walked back, counted around 130 of 'em... brilliant. There was a huge puddle on the blind corner, and little chunks of them kept flying down to drink .... luckily, none of them got squodged... well. not while I was there anyway. The next step in the Waxwinging hierarchy is to get one on your house list. But unfortunately I haven't managed that ..yet .. despite having a garden surrounded by suitable berry-bearing bushes and trees. I nearly got them in the house list ... I was walking home, with 200m or so to go, when I spotted a big flock of them in a tall tree.... readers, I broke into a run, whizzed upstairs to my "office" in the hope that I might see them flying by ... but they never did. If only that tree had been another 10m tall. BUT .. it could still happen. I'm waiting When I walk round the town, I drive TSO ( The Significant Otter)=(The Wife) mad ..I just can't resist pointing out every spot where I've spotted Waxwings ... and there's quite a lot of them. And she's heard it all before about 378 times. And there's great pleasure in pointing them out to passers-by. They are dead chuffed to see them... and hear them. Mostly. SO ... We will all be distinctly displeased if there's none of them this winter. Irked ... peeved .. disgruntled .... down-in-the-dumps ..... Now ... let's have another lovely Kate & Anna McGarrigle song ........
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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