Waxwings

 Today I took a brief break from some weapon's grade calorie consumption to enjoy a last day off before returning to work tomorrow. I set off with Alan Shorrock to look for the Waxwings that had been reported in Higham Ferrers on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day itself. Today's weather was fairly obliging with the morning in particular being bright and sunny and the light conditions were very good indeed.

Waxwings

We arrived at Higham just before nine and spent a little time walking around the residential streets in search of our glamourous targets. Luck favoured us, a pair of birds that I spotted in the top of a birch tree turned out to be the Waxwings. They treated us to some good views for the next twenty minutes or so before we decided to leave them and a couple of their admirers to it. A quick check on the local Peregrines failed to produce any sightings and we journeyed over to Summer Leys soon after.

Summer Leys sightings.

Summer Leys was a bit on the quiet side, there were a few diving duck on the main lake but the scrape was quiet. Waders included at least nine Snipe and Alan picked out four Golden Plovers though only one decided to land. A Great White Egret was also present on the main lake but there was not much else to report and the lure of a Boxing Day pint was sufficient to bring our birding day to a close.