Following the forecast over the last few days it was apparent that today was going to be a wet one. Nothing wrong with that, it just adds a different dimension and changes the way you approach the day. Having explored a fair amount of the Island, it felt right that we should move on to the mainland, and we had a particular place in mind.
Glen Orchy has always been a bit special for our family over the years, it’s a fabulous drive up through the glen from Inverlochy to Bridge of Orchy, offering countless opportunities to stop, wander and gather. In the rain it simply comes to life (following post)
But before that I had another stopping off point on the day’s agenda. Twenty Waxwings had been reported in Oban over the last few days, I’d been keeping an eye on their movements. It had been a good winter for them, indeed an eruption year, and I was to hook up with them again on another two occasions before spring.
Rain offers something different to bird photography and I really enjoy working in it, the heavier the better. The right shutter speed and the right kind of rain can add so much to an image. Today I had it all. As is often the case with Waxwings they show up in the most banal and odd places. A supermarket carpark; Industrial estates; residential housing complexes. I remember twenty or so years ago a flock of eighteen took a liking to a Mountain Ash tree not thirty yards from our front door in Llantrisant!
Today they’d found Yews and Rowans in a church yard on the main road into Oban, and would fly off every now and again before returning to the same spot, they were joined, on occasions, by Redwings and Fieldfares. I couldn’t resist stopping on our way back to Luing, after a breathtaking time in Glen Orchy, to see if they were still around. They were, but not in the same numbers and not in the rain! It was still wonderful to see such exotic birds finding refuge on our shores from Scandinavia, with a plumage as beautiful as any in the bird world.
A crest to give presence, dignity and attitude; a tail band of the brightest yellow, as if dipped carefully in paint; the same yellow ribbed down the outer primaries; a pinkish brown suede coat and white tips to the secondaries; deep rufous under-tail coverts and just a dash of wax red at the top of the yellow on those sublime secondaries and all topped off with a masked black eyestripe and chin giving it an almost angry and a very definite attentive demeanour.
No comment yet, add your voice below!