In Search Of Hygge?

 According to the RSPB Website, "The waxwing is a plump bird, which is slightly smaller than a starling. It has a prominent crest. It is reddish-brown with a black throat, a small black mask round its eye, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail. It does not breed in the UK, but is a winter visitor, in some years in larger numbers, called irruptions, when the population on its breeding grounds gets too big for the food available."

These attractive birds arrive here from Scandinavia [and Russia] hoping to find food - they are particularly fond of berries like rowan and cotoneaster.



These ones were spotted last week not far from here [in Halfords Car Park in Poole ] but they have been seen in Norfolk, Cardiff, Buckinghamshire...all over the UK. 

I think they are so attractive- look at the lovely black and yellow patterns on their tails and the glorious soft shades of brown and beige across their backs, and the tiny little bright flashes of red, matching their berried diet.



Here is a useful information chart about them - I have been looking, but I've not spotted any in Ferndown itself yet

This one was spotted in Norfolk, not that far from Cornerstones. 
According to one article I read, a third of the British population feed the birds in their gardens, and the positive effect of their action cannot be underestimated. The RSPB gives helpful advice if you want to do this

And who knows, in return, you might just see a waxwing from you window.     

[Pictures from the Bournemouth Echo and Eastern Daily Press]