Winter Visitors

Post date: Dec 11, 2012 11:05:25 PM

Do you have birdfeeders in your garden? If so it's worth keeping an eye on them at present. Recently we have had jays and a nuthatch visiting regularly - winter firsts for us in Crick. The nuthatch will be a local bird, but the jays may be some of the large migration that came to the UK in October. Even our current blackbirds and robins may be migrants.

One bird we had visiting the sunflower feeders last week was undoubtedly a migrant - a brambling - the first we have seen for perhaps 4 or 5 years.

At first glance you could mistake them for the chaffinches they are often seen with, but the breast is more orange and white with a brindle back.

Even more exciting at present is the large flock of waxwings feeding on the hawthorn hedge alongside the M48 - Wye Valley link road. Well worth a look if you haven't seen these fabulous birds before.