Braxwing

On Friday (28/03) I had the day off work, with me heading off to a friend's stag do later on in the day. For much of the morning and afternoon though, I had a bit of free time to myself. I used my time to do the rounds of some of my local sites to see what I could find.

I started early at Grimsbury Res, however despite a thorough walk round, it was a relatively fruitless visit with singles of LRP & Willow Tit, as well as a Snipe in the Upper Cherwell Valley.

After nipping home I popped out to Bucknell Wood for a walk. There were decent numbers of Lesser Redpoll & Siskin still about and I was pleased to see my first couple of Comma of 2017 too.

I arrived home to get my stuff together for the weekend, however I was quickly out the door again, seeing a report of a Waxwing a couple of minutes drive down the road! I'd tried hard this winter to find Waxwings in Brackley, but to no avail. So to have the chance to see one after all, was a nice surprise!

The bird showed well, either sat up resting in a tree, occasionally fly-catching, or feeding on a surprisingly laden berry tree close by on Falcon Way. I sat and watched it for quite a while, before having to head off. Lovely stuff!

Early on Sunday (26/03) evening, I returned home from a great weekend away and seeing that the Waxwing was still about, I headed round the corner for another look. Again she showed really nicely, spending pretty much the whole time sat in the berry bush, sporadically having a feed. After a while, it flew to the back of the bush, so I headed home.