Find some Waxwings

 Waxwings have been arriving in the north-east in good numbers the past week or so and I have seen them at several spots, so I had to look for some in Chester-le-Street yesterday. I did, amazingly, find some without too much difficulty. Not a flock of 150-200 like in some places but a small group of 12 in the trees of Park View School in the town centre.

I continued down into the Riverside Park. The Whooper Swan is still present and a few Cormorant  and 7 Goosander were on the river but very little else except for 2 Grey Wagtail. The little nature reserve near the cricket ground was, as usual, very quiet, with only a few Bullfinch, a Jay and a lone Siskin of note.

2 of the Goosanders, the drake looking uncomfortably like a duck out of water.

Today a single Waxwing flew over the house and landed in the nearby big Beech tree. This is the same tree that held a flock of 60 in November 2010. At lunchtime, on my way to Chester Moor, I found a hairy orange-brown caterpillar crawling across the pavement in front of me. It turned out to be the larva of a Ruby Tiger Moth.

I had sneaked out of the area early this morning to successfully see a Great Grey Shrike but was probably more pleased to see four juvenile Barn Owls getting what may be the last bit of warm sun this year as they sat outside their nestbox.

2 of the 4 Barn Owls I saw this morning

With two separate sightings of Waxwing this weekend with very little effort, it shows just how many are currently about and I'm sure anyone interested could find some if they were vigilant. But they need to hurry, as following the spring and summer we have had,  there are not many berries about, so they'll not be around for long. 

Roof top Nature

With the dark nights it's weekend only nature watching most of the time till spring now.  Recently it's been looking at what has popping into the garden but so far it's been rather quiet.

Dunnock in the garden

A (or the) Grey Squirrel has been quite regular, not only raiding the bird table but generally scurrying around the garden.

Grey Squirrel - 9 out of 10 for attempted cuteness

It has taking the habit of scrambling onto the roof if it's disturbed instead of leaving all together.

Rooftop Grey Squirrel

Today I went to the coast of the outside chance that a reported Lesser Kestrel was going to be around at Marsden. Of course it wasn't but I took the opportunity of heading a couple of miles south to a garden in Seaburn where a Bee-eater has been present for a couple of days. Instead of either being in Africa or at least well on it's way, its feed on wasps still around in gardens in Sunderland.

Bee-eater at Seaburn

Like the garden Squirrel it was also using the rooftops to view it's surroundings.

Rooftop Bee-eater

I know which I would prefer on my roof.