Jan/Feb


Visitor has twitchers all a flutter


SUB-FREEZING tempera- tures have attracted a Scan- dinavian visitor to south Devon, in turn attracting a large flock of twitchers with their big cameras and even bigger lenses. Two Scandinavian


waxwings, bombycilla gar- rulus, were spotted in Buckfastleigh perched on a tree outside the Co-op store in Chapel Street, writes Lindsey Sill.


Naturalist John Walters, of Oaklands Park, was alerted to them by their bell-like, tinkling call. He told friend and fellow


bird watcher Mark Darlas- ton, also of Oaklands Park, who in turn alerted the bird-watching community. John said: ‘Over one-


weekend probably about 100 people at least came to see it. During the day there were 20 to 30 at a time. ‘It lives in Scandinavia and breeds up in places like East Russia. ‘They really like rowan berries and when the rowan crop fails in Scandinavia they all come over here. ‘It’s obviously not a good year for rowan berries there as there are hundreds in the country. I was expecting them.


‘I’ve been watching the


rowan berries there expect- ing them to turn up.’ Details of sightings and pictures have been turning up on bird watching web- sites, including Devon Bird News, Rare Bird Alert and Bird Guides. Kevin Thomsett, who


works at the Buckfastleigh Co-op, said that as many as ten bird watchers were stood out in the freezing cold taking photos of the unusual northern visitor. By following day, the birds and the twitchers had moved on. Word was they had moved up Jordan Street.


Naomi Barker, Dartmoor National Park


Authority’s


ecologist, who also went to take a look, said: ‘It’s unusual for them to push this far south but most years they come to north east England. ‘They’re a bit erratic, sometimes they come in huge numbers, sometimes they don’t come at all.’ She said they are usually to be found in car parks, attracted by the ornamental planting. ‘They eat up everything in one car park then move on to the next,’ she said.


TIMES 7


RARE SIGHT: A Scandinavian waxwing pictured in Buckfastleigh by resi- dent Mark Darlston.


‘The waxwing lives in Scandinavia and breeds up in places like East Russia.


‘They really like rowan berries and when the rowan crop fails in Scandinavia they all come over here.’


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