Such cute little birds. Waxwings at Silver Court, Saturday, 14th January 2017.

Having a lot of enquiries here ofver the last couple of days as to why Silver Court in Brownhills seems to be occupied by a group of predominantly older, bearded blokes in outdoor gear and armed with scopes and cameras.

There’s a simple and beautiful answer: once more a flock of waxwings have blessed us with their company, and they’ve chosen to strip the trees at the from of Silver Court of their berries.

Waxwings are about the size of,  but a tad smaller than starlings, and are predominantly grey birds with brightly coloured details. They breed and generally live in eastern Europe, but often in cold winters they come into the east of the British Isles when their numbers swamp their usual feeding grounds.

Birds of a feather… the flock at Silver Court today numbered between 30-40 today, and had a crowd of about 8-12 birdies showing keen interest.

These pretty creatures like berries – haws, rowan, contester and rose hips. At Silver Court they seem to be dining on some kind of ornamental berry that grows on the trees in front of the shopping parade.

These waves of unusual visitors are called ‘irruptions’ and you can read lots more about them on Chaz Mason’s wonderful blog. The birds are quite an unusual sight, but in recent winters, we’ve been blessed before in Brownhills. I’d be curious to know if there’s some kind of flock-memory of food here, or if it’s coincidental.

If you’re not reading Chaz Mason regularly, you should be. The man is a gentleman, and god-like genius of the marsh. Learned so much from his blog over the years.

One of the Brownhills Waxwings taken lunch time. Also Fieldfare and Redwings coming to feed on the berries. pic.twitter.com/bcoy0mNU7D

— Kev Wardlaw (@kevwardlaw) January 14, 2017

Reader Marie who lives in Silver Court (who also spotted the wayward Tesco truck last

week) donated the following images to the blog, and there are lots too from others on social media.

Gallery images kindly supplied by reader Marie

It’s nice to be able to report something so pleasant for a change – and it’s nice to see Brownhills looking at it’s wildlife.

Do feel free to send me images if you’d like me to share them with readers.