Finally, waxwings appeared after three years of waiting, and where? There were here, in Poznań. A few days frosts made the birds fly down, and it was quite a large group of them. At times there were between 100 and 200 individuals. Before 8 o’clock it was not yet good light for shooting, but it was a great opportunity to record voices of the birds. Birds were sitting in the crowns of tall trees, and every few minutes they were flying down to rowans in great numbers. Birds while feeding were scared by cars and passers-by, but only for a moment, because the whole flock was back in a minute. They were quite systematic in denuding trees of fruit. They preyed in this place for a few days and one could see the difference between the trees where waxwings already were feeding, which were bare of fruit, and those which were not yet of interest for the birds. Probably in a few days it will not be possible to shoot at this place, due to the fact that resources of their delicacies will run out. Although the weather was not good, because of scarcity of light, and at times because of quite heavy snow that made the birds invisible and autofocus could not work properly, I managed to create quite interesting and peculiar, winter gallery. As for the gallery initiating new species - my satisfaction is complete. Especially because creating a new gallery of new Polish species is getting more and more difficult taking into account the whole content of my photo display. Last news was the grey plover photographed in September 2015, thus more than four months ago. Let’s back to waxwings. Heavy frost more than 10 degrees Celsius below zero made me feel quite uncomfortably, but without frost I could not find there those birds. While waiting for waxwings birdwatchers who photographed in this place together with me, were telling bird stories and viewing photos on their phones to make our waiting more pleasant. I send my greetings to Robert, Thomas and Mariusz. I wonder when we have a chance for another meeting with these beautiful birds. I hope it will not take years as they are graceful object for shooting and definitely better pictures can be taken under more favorable circumstances.
Last minute news - 01/2017
And here we have another encounter with the Bohemian waxwing that have to be noted. This time I was able to watch these birds in Bieszczady Mountains while looking in vain for an Ural owl. There were dozens of Bohemian waxwings but they very skittish. I took some photos out of my car.