Over the last month or so there has been an influx of one of Europe's most beautiful birds, the waxwing, or the Bohemian waxwing to be exact. As their main food source, berries, become scarce they cross the North Sea from Scandinavia to the UK. Not surprisingly, they are usually seen in northern England and Scotland first, then gradually further south. My first encounter with them was around 15 years ago. I found myself standing with a group of birdwatchers close to a rowan tree on the edge of an industrial park, observing these 'exotic' birds just 10 or so metres away. They have very little fear of humans on account they seldom come into contact with them during the rest of the year. As a result, they are fantastic birds to photograph. No need for hides. Just patience and warm clothing! They are sticklers to keeping to a location until they have stripped the bushes and trees bare so will very often linger for a several days.
On this occasion, a sizeable flock had turned up at a retail park in Folkestone opposite B&Q. Oh, how such places love to plant berry bushes to break up the concrete. Good news for birds though! I had heard about them being there but the weather transpired against me and so with a clear day forecast I set off. I first went to a location in Hythe where a number had been spotted over several days but as I arrived I was informed that they hadn't been seen all morning and that they were probably joining the flock in Folkestone. 10 minutes later I was standing with 4 or 5 other photographers photographing a flock numbering at least 150. Due to the incessant traffic they deployed a hit and run tactic. First gathering in a nearby tree and then after about 10 minutes fly down to the rowan, gobble as many berries as possible within 30 seconds and then retreat back to the tree to digest. This gave me very little opportunity to obtain portraits of them and anyway, I already had some nice images I took several years earlier. Instead, I looked for alternatives. Lowering the iso and reducing the aperture gave me a slow shutter speed of 1/30th sec. and so, over a couple of hours I photographed them as they flew from tree to tree. The slow shutter speed inducing blur giving a feeling of movement.
A loud moan emanated from the photographers as we spotted a large bank of cloud to the west. That's our afternoon scuppered we thought. As the sun disappeared behind the clouds I took advantage and went back to my car to warm up and have lunch. Leaving never entered my mind as you just never know what will happen. 2 hours passed by and with just 10 minutes to sunset, the sun popped out and bathed the flock in red.
As the sun set I positioned myself to try and obtain images of them as they landed onto the rowan by which time there was clear sky with just a hint of cloud to provide a tinge of pink.
I stayed till twilight when the flock left to roost for the night and as I walked back to the car I couldn't help but smile, thinking of all the other photographers leaving a few hours earlier that had thought the sun would never return.
