The Waxwing Invasion 2010/2011

The winter of 2010/2011 saw an extraordinary invasion of Waxwings into the Avon area and certainly the best numbers since the last large influx in 2004/05.

Waxwing is an irruptive species with always a few turning up somewhere along the east coast of the UK every winter. The really big invasions into the country occur when the weather is unusually harsh and the food supply is poor in their homelands.

To put our west country influx into perspective, many of the east coast towns up and down the UK were recording hundreds of birds over days and weeks with Aberdeen city centre logging at least 2,000 birds  on 1 day in November alone.

The following is a summary to remind ourselves of this extraordinary event and a few pictures to help re-live the moments.

November 2010 (5 reports): the influx kicked off with a single bird being noted in a garden in Portishead on 15 November. There was a hint that things might get better with reports of 5 birds at Bridgwater and also 6 birds at Hanham in the last week and also 2 other places, all against a backdrop of hundreds of these birds appearing all along the east of of the UK.

December 2010 (93 reports): the flood gates really opened in the first week with small flocks of birds popping up all over the place and too many to mention individually.

In Bristol, long staying parties were reported at Warmley, Downend, Hanham, Horfield, Avonmouth and Bradley Stoke, as well as odd birds at many other places. The best city counts were 120 birds at Brynland Avenue Horfield on 28th and around 20+ birds at the Downend/Warmley area.

Weston-super-Mare was also inundated with Waxwings, the town's best single count reported was 91 birds at Florence Grove on 24th.

22.12.10 Horfield © Allan Chard, many thanks

The Beauchamp Rd & Brynland Ave birds were particularly popular

January 2011 (48 reports): though overall numbers were slightly down on the December high tide, there were still plenty of roaming parties all over Bristol with many birds appearing in new places enabling many members to grab garden ticks!

The Horfield flock remained throughout the month but was down to 15 birds by month end. Many of the birds remained true to the field guide descriptions and were recorded at Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury supermarket car parks.

Some club members even started to help out with the monthly shopping.......

20.1.11 Redland © John Sparks, many thanks

February 2011 (15 reports): birds were not so widespread in February with only Bristol sightings being reported; around 30 birds were recorded at Bradley Stoke, Kingswood, Warmley, Henleaze, Redland, Clifton and even 11 birds outside the Newman Hall where we hold our evening meetings!

Our last report was of birds at College Green in the city centre (12) and at Kenmore Drive, Southmead (31) on 24 February.


And finally, THE iconic photograph which has captured the Tribe's imagination everywhere and encapsulates the sheer charm of these birds.

Fair isle, © Tommy Hyndman, many thanks

Many thanks to everyone who sent in sightings and photos to enable us to record this wonderful event for posterity.

Full details and account will of course will appear in the Avon Bird Reports in due course.