Waxwings and Cliffe

A day out....

Sadly, no Waxwings at Whetsted and nothing to entice them there either....very few berry bearing bushes of great interest for them....so....with that in mind and it pressing on toward the end of the year...it was...

Day Out time...!!

So, DH and I finally headed off to Strood to chase down some Waxwings that have been resident for about two weeks now.

We set off from Pembury around 0900 and arrived on site at 0935...and how easy it was....we got out of the car, saw a couple of birds sitting atop a tree and spied them with our binoculars...hey presto....two Waxwings....joined almost immediately by a third...

Heres a ropey picture of one....forgot my camera again so had to use my phone.....

I'm sure it isn't always this easy with Waxwings...or any bird....!!

DH and I remained on site for about 30 minutes watching them fly between the Acer they were perched on, the yellow berry trees in someones garden, and the large Birch across the road....we even had the pleasure of showing some passing workmen who were most interested in why they were here....

Now...if they can hang around another 16 days!  We can get them on next years list!!

Having had our fill of Waxwing (a year tick for me and a life tick for DH), we moved on to Cliffe pools.

Good numbers of birds around, though, as usual with Cliffe, distant is the word....!

Teal, Pochard, Shoveler, Goldeneye, Tufted, Gadwall, Little Grebe, Great Crested Grebe, Little Egret, Lapwng, Curlew, Redshank, Golden Plover, Grey Plover, Dunlin, 10 Pintail, Buzzard, Kestrel, Reed Bunting, Kingfisher, Fieldfare, Redwing, Blackbird and more.....and about 500 Avocet flew in....

A nice few hours out and about....