Waxwings in Hulme 29 November 2012
I had been following recent reports on the Manchester Birding Forum’s sightings page of a large number of Waxwings feeding from some Rowan trees around the Hulme Estate and, in particular, at Arnott Crescent.
Waxwing Hulme Manchester 29 November 2012
They had been there a few days but we hoped that they would still be there when we arrived there at about 9.45am. We drove up and down Arnott Crescent until we saw a bird photographer parked up and we pulled up behind him. He had been there since 8 am and had been watching a flock that varied in size between 80 to a hundred Waxwings that were roosting in a tree a bit away and used a fir tree a little nearer as a staging post to landing on a Rowan tree with whitish berries that was in the back garden of a house. According to the chap we spoke to, this was the last Rowan tree left around the Arnott Crescent area and the birds kept landing on the tree en mass to eat until they suddenly decided to return to the safety of their roost tree. They were soon back again and several times they swooped in a low circle in the general area of the tree giving us very good close views and it was possible to hear the small contact noises they were making to each other ! I had just taken a 70 – 300mm lens with me to get some photographs but it didn’t really cut it so we decided to go back home and pick up a bigger lens. In the end I was using a 500mm lens with a x2 teleconverter to take pictures of the birds on the Rowan tree a mere 40 foot away from us. We eventually left around 12.30pm but the birds were still coming and going between the roost tree and their food. By all accounts this is a “waxwing year” everywhere this year.
Waxwings Hulme Manchester 29 November 2012