Waxwings, Bombycilla garrulus, are regular, though not annual, winter visitors to this part of Scotland. However, whenever I saw them, it was always on the sort of dull, rainy day which makes photography difficult and the results unsatisfactory – and/or the background wasn’t attractive. On one famous occasion, my neighbour emailled me photos of Waxwings in my garden, but as it was late December, I didn’t see them as I was going to and returning from work in the dark, then by the weekend all the berries in the garden had been eaten and the birds had moved on – a garden ‘tick’ that I didn’t see!
So when this flock arrived about four miles away on a lovely, sunny Sunday, of course I was delighted to go to look for them, and to my delight they were feeding on Rowan (Mountain Ash, Sorbus aucuparia) trees with clear blue sky behind. What a treat! They had gathered a little happy crowd of admirers, and were calling and excreting ‘strings of rubies’, i.e. seeds with some shiny, red flesh from the fruit still clinging to them.
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