Waxdipping

With a week of nightshift beckoning, a grey day reflected my mood - until the familiar trill of waxwing got my attention...

Initially 50 birds were present around the house this morning, while a venture out on the bike later on in the afternoon resulted in 21 lingering towards the park. The light was dreadful today, more of a "murk" in fact. The flock were not particularly doing much, and despite close views, were not in classic waxwing photography position - from the underside on  dull day like today they can look merely like grey starlings.

Still, always good to see. So what next? A potter further down the Horton Burn provided a much better highlight (for me at least), with the dipper back. I managed to grab a couple of pictures before a loose dog wandered to close, pushing the dipper downstream from the road bridge. I dare say a dipper anywhere else would not be so appealing, but when its on the patch, in-between the houses no less, then its "mint-tastic". Rather enjoyed watching the dipper feeding - amazing ability to swim in the fast flowing rapids that have been swollen with snow melt.

The old fire station end of the burn failed to produce anything, so I opted for a slow meander to West Hartford, which was in turn, rather quiet. A single buzzard was mobbed by carrion crow over the back and 1 siskin flew over. It seems January will remain short-eared owl-less, unless my luck changes this week...