The Waxwing That Was Not....

Most Christmas', we always go and visit out relatives in Suffolk. This provides me with a great chance to go birding in the local woodland and farmland. My aim for the trip this Christmas was to connect with some of the 100s of Waxwings that have been sighted across East Anglia and it would be a great way to round up the year.

After spending time with the family, I walked down to the local park to see what I could find, Fieldfare were very abundant in the park so I took a photo of a flock in a tree. When I got home and cropped the shot, I found that the centre right bird (below) looked very like a Waxwing.

The bird has most of the features of Waxwing; crest, black around the eye, rounded body and a shortish tail. The problem is, it is not small enough for Waxwing and you can just see a greyish cap on the head which is a prime feature of the nearby Fieldfare (centre left). After looking at the photo for a long time, you can also see the crest is obviously not connected to the bird but just a twig. This makes me come to the conclusion that it is not a Waxwing but just a Fieldfare :(.

Anyway, enough of me rambing on. Later on in the day, I came back to the park to take a look at the passerines that frequent the hedgerows. There was nothing worth noting but I did find a very showy Wren that sang and foraged through the undergrowth....

A Dunnock was singing from the same bush and showed its head briefly...

There was a steady flow of Canada Geese passing over me from a near by river...

And just as I left, I spotted a definate Fieldfare in the adjacent field....