Castle Vale Waxwing special !

I'd originally planned to go to Sutton Park today, then decided that the fog forecast wouldn't make the trip worthwhile.....then I noticed that my good internet friend Ragged Robin, blog raggedrobinsnaturenotes and Twitter CarolineIrwin3 had alerted me to the presence of Waxwings on Castle Vale in Birmingham so I thought I'd go regardless of the weather, what a great decision, c.100 Waxwings and blue skies and sunshine.

Only one word sums up the Waxwings, WOW ! What a completely amazing bird, it looks, sounds and even flies with such grace, when I arrived there at approximately 8am, there they were 100+Waxwing singing away in a tree, unfortunately for them the main source of berries were rowan trees adjacent to the road so as soon as they got near the berries traffic would go past and scare them up into the air, if they actually managed to get in one the trees with no traffic on the road then one of the Mistle Thrush present in the nearby trees would fly in and scare them away form 'their' berries, as well as that I also witnessed a Kestrel taking an interest in them twice. All the same it was an absolute pleasure to see them for the first time in my life.

Also seen in and around the area in the four hours I was there, are the following birds, Redwing, Fieldfare, Song Thrush, Blackbird, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Chaffinch, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Reed Bunting, (an abundance of) House Sparrow, Wren, Robin, Starling, Pied Wagtail, Woodpigeon, Carrion Crow and Magpie.

Obviously the highlight was seeing the Waxwing but it was great to see and hear so many House Sparrow, I've never realised  before that this location was a stronghold for the humble House Sparrow, they were literally everywhere in the area, from in front of the swimming baths, right the way down to the stables, long may that continue.