Waxing

Sunday morning, and Castle Howard yielded little: 49 Tufted Ducks, 48 Teal and 10 Goldeneye. The two Scaup from earlier in the week had gone.

Heading for the LDV, news came through from Neil Cooper of the seven Waxwings he'd found yesterday still being present in Melbourne, which was handy as I would be passing through there on the way to Ellerton. Sure enough, the lads were present behind the Melbourne Arms pub in a tree. I showed the landlord and landlady the birds through my scope and shortly a guy came past, who also had a look. He said his name was Tom and that the birds were sitting in a tree in his garden, and if I wanted to go down his drive and have a closer look, that would be fine. Thanking Tom, I headed round there, past the Rowan tree where they were clearly feeding, and into his garden. The Waxwings were very close and unconcerned, happily trilling away and preening. I enjoyed good views for 15 minutes, before carrying on. Thanks Tom!

 

 

Waxwings preening: it takes effort to look this good!

On to Ellerton and a long walk down to the landing and then Hagg Lane, revealed c100 Tufted Ducks and 50 Pochards, plus 30 Pinkfeet, 50 Whooper Swans and not a lot else. c600 Golden Plovers and 30 Dunlins were in the field at Derwent Cottage Farm, Bubwith, with 8 Ruff on South Bubwith Ings. Later on, I walked down to Acaster and was pleased to find 120 Golden Plovers in the field north of Acaster.