Local Walk

Sunday December 16th a.m.
 A cloudy but reasonably mild start to the day as we headed towards Hewenden Viaduct
with the dog.The usual species were flitting around including Blackbirds,Blue Tits,Collared
Dove,Goldfinch,Great Tit,House Sparrow and Wren.As we approached the reservoir we
saw a Cormorant flying heading East and a Grey Heron heading South.There were six
Canadas at the far end of the reservoir and a number of BH Gulls.At the other side of the
viaduct we saw our first Redwing for our Cullingworth List, which set us off home happy
with this addition.We didn't have many snaps for my blog though even the Redwing flew
off before I could point my camera.Still I had a couple of poor snaps of Collared Doves,
then as we neared home we thought we saw another three Starlings on the wires connected
to a telegraph pole.The sky was still dull & grey but as we got closer they didn't look right
so looking through the bins we realized they were in fact Waxwings!Out came the cameras
& we started snapping,the dog was pulling my dad so he took her home, only 60 meters away.
He rushed back and we kept snapping the birds occasionally flying down into the gardens for
the plentiful berries.Then our look improved more as the sun broke through & soon even some
blue sky appeared which meant we got some decent snaps and another first for the year and an
addition to our Cullingworth list.

Waxwing on top of Telegraph pole

Plenty berries in the gardens for the Waxwing

One of Three Waxwings Cullingworth 16/12/2012