In Flight

I have been trying to get some half-decent shots of birds flying, as of now I am yet to succeed. The shots below represent the best of my efforts so far.

A trio of Whoopers

Three Common Cranes (2 adult and 1 juvenile)

The same 3 Common Cranes (the juvenile is the bird on the right)

Hopefully, I will improve as time goes by!

Upside down Waxwings

Just a few from the huge flock that were at The Crab and Winkle pub in Werrington last week. More will follow!

Starling roost

One of natures' spectacles in the winter months is surely that of the flocks of Starlings going to roost, the 'whirling' patterns of thousands of birds as they perform a ballet of true wonder and beauty.

In the Peterborough area we have a couple of these roosts at the moment, one at Deeping Lakes and one at Maxey gravel pits. Both number thousands of birds, but it was at Maxey that I found myself this evening. A few other local birders had also come to view the spectacle and as the numbers of birds grew and grew we were all left speechless, well, almost!

The final estimate was anything between 10-15,000 birds.

Below are a couple of short videos, not the greatest pieces of camera work you are ever likely to see and there are a couple of 'voices off', but hopefully they will give you an idea of what was on offer.

These numbers do give a slightly false impression of the state of Starling numbers at the moment. This year alone, over 40 million of these birds have vanished in Europe. No one knows the cause, but changes in agricultural practice are being mooted as one of the prime reasons. One thing is for sure, if something is not done to reverse the catastrophic fall in numbers of this bird, sights like those above will be a thing of the past.

Another Berry guzzler

Another bird very partial to eating fruit is the Redwing, another winter migrant from the frozen North. Song Thrush sized with a distinctive pale eye-stripe and of course, a very obvious red underwing, a cracking bird.

Waxwing in the hand

This post is not what it first appears. It is sad and contains photos of a beautiful bird that some people may find distressing, so if you are at all squeamish please do not read any further.

Another large flock of Waxwings has appeared in the Peterborough area and once again I found myself camped by some Rowan trees waiting for these 'trillers' to come and feed so I could take yet more photos. The birds have descended upon an area very close to my house in the village of Werrington, the same area that a flock of up to 140 appeared in the last mass irruption year of 2010/11 and an area quite close to a busy road.

There I was, waiting patiently when a couple of other birders arrived. This couple then noticed a dead bird on the side of the road that I had not seen, which turned out to be a Waxwing. Very sad, to come all this way and be hit by a car. It did, however give us a chance to see the bird 'up close', marvelling at the plumage and of course, the red 'wax' tips of the secondary feathers that give the bird its' name.

Brian Stone arrived and we both looked at the bird, trying to see if we could sex or age it, but we couldn't. On return to his office Brian e-mailed me a link which showed the differences in the sex and age of the Waxwing. Click HERE if you wish to look at this link yourself (this has photos of live Waxwings, so nothing nasty). After perusal of this link I have come to the conclusion that the bird was a juvenile male bird, judging from the lack of yellow on the outer web of the primary feathers and the number of red 'wax' tips being five with the longest being 5.5mm. The birds' markings under the throat had a diffuse edge, but that is surely due to it being a juvenile, although I am not sure.

Below are some photos of the bird, showing some of the markings that I have explained above. WARNING, these are of a dead bird, although the bird is not deformed or marked in any way, it is dead, so please do not view if you are offended.

Showing how small the bird is, smaller than a Starling. The ruler is 15 cm  or 6 inches long.

Showing the diffuse edge of the black 'bib' under the throat.

The red 'wax' tips on the secondary feathers with the tips of the outer webs of the primary feathers being yellowish-white and no markings on the inner webs.

The head of the bird, showing the slight diffuse nature of the black 'bib'.

A sad end for a beautiful bird, but a fascinating chance to have one so close, I just wish that I could have released him to fly again.

The beauty of Wax