RARE WAXWINGS SPOTTED IN BUSHY PARK TODAY
PHOTO SPECIAL BY CHRISTINE BRADLEY AND STUART HIGGINS
Scores of keen birdwatchers were lined up along a short stretch of a stream in Bushy Park today to capture rare photos of the rarely spotted Waxwing.
About 20 of the colourful birds could be seen eating the mistletoe berries from the trees aligning the 100 metre section of water between the Hampton Court Gate and the children’s playground.
Photographers with long lenses kept a respectable distance and other birdwatchers had travelled from Ealing, Thames Ditton and Bookham to catch sight of the rare birds, believed to be the first time they have ever been spotted in Bushy Park alerted through the RSPB and various bird watching whatsapp groups.
The Waxwings are winter visitors to the UK, travelling here from Scandinavia when the food supply there runs low. Some winters there are only a hundred or so across the UK, but in other years they arrive in their thousands – an event known as an ‘irruption.’
The Waxwing is a plump bird, which is slightly smaller than a Starling. It has a prominent crest. It is reddish-brown with a black throat, a small black mask round its eye, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail.
According to the local branch of the RSPB there were about 19 Waxwings in the area, mostly seen sitting in the trees but flitting down to the side of the stream in search of other food.
