Here in N. Norway we have very little daylight on Christmas Day, just an
hour or two of uncertain twilight. The main Christmas festivities are on
Christmas Eve in this country, so Christmas day is an easy day, with a
magnificently diverse Christmas brunch and for the grandchildren playing
in the snow in the garden---it had snowed all day on Christmas Eve, so the
garden looked like a Christmas illustration. But birds played very little
role in it; my feeders remain almost untouched in these last weeks (A
single flock of Greenfinches and the occasional Great Tit), so the only
birds we habitually see over and in the garden are Magpies (ours, not
yours) and Hooded Crows, with now and then a Northern Raven croaking
overhead.
But then suddenly a tight swirling group of smallish birds appeared and
landed in our Rowan (Sorbus), in the twilight they look like small gnomes
with pointy caps. They are Bohemian Waxwings, there were at least a
hundred of them, and they are not much afraid of humans; there have been
many this fall, as the Rowans had a rich crop, and clearly they are still
around.
I wish you all a wonderful 2011, at home, at work and on the birding
trail!
Wim Vader, Tromsø Museum
9037 Tromsø, Norway
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