Waiting for Waxwings

Waxwings have already arrived in Edinburgh this winter, just see the lovely photos in this tweet from @SunshineonLeith.

So I was looking for them all around today, taking particularly care to check rowan trees, which are their favourite food source.

But our local rowan trees are still well berried, waiting for the waxwings

though something has been eating the berries

I suspect the squashed berries have been trodden underfoot rather than eaten but it's likely to have been some kind of bird that caused the berries to fall from the tree in the first place. Redwings or blackbirds perhaps? It seems unlikely that wxwings would eat only a couple of berries before moving on, they usually stay long enough to strip a tree of all its berries.

I may not have seen any waxwings while walking round town, but I did see a pair of treecreepers in the Meadows, moving too quickly for a photo as was the magpie which showed off it's irridescent feathers to full advantage, looking very handsome. And a skein of geese passed far overhead, coming in for the winter.