Garden Waxwing - finally finds the Rose hips

Waxwing - image taken through the kitchen window

 For more years than I can remember, I've been letting wild Rose spread and grow in height, climbing over any ornamental shrub in its way. In blossom and in fruit it looks stunning, that's as long as you like a wildlidfe garden. With dreams of Waxwings and Fieldfares feeding on the garden Rose-hips, this year's berry crop, not touched all winter, looked to remain just that.. .. until today.

Pulling the bedroom curtains open this morning, sitting at eye-level at the top of the garden Larch was a fine male Waxwing. After a few minutes preening, it dropped down into the rose hips. What joy!
It quickly devoured no more than three buds then flew back up to preen in the trees.

An hour later, the Waxwing finally made it to the wild Roses at the back of the garden, landing just outside the kitchen window to pose for just a few pictures.

The flocks of Waxwings I saw before Christmas were ravenous feeders, stripping Hawthorns of berries as fast as they could. By contrast this solitary Waxwing seemed to have all the time in the world to leisurely knock back a few Hips and then preen. Perhaps, this lovely male has some spring courtship on its mind.