Last chance to see.... well for this year at least

I had given up all hope of seeing the waxwings this year. Others I know have been twitching them on regular basis, I've been following reports of sightings on the interweb, etc, but I have been unlucky in my quest. Whenever I turned up there was no sign of them or I'd meet some birder walking away having just seen them but they had flown off.

Being April I'd assumed that they would have all gone back to Scandinavia and mainland northern Europe but out of the blue I got a phone call at 11:45am to get down to Bamber Bridge as a small flock was gorging on apples on two trees in a school grounds. Opting for an early lunch I sped the couple of miles and met up with my spotter friend Dave who was stood atop a pair of stepladders peering over a high hedge, camera in hand beaming from ear to ear. Big thanks to Joyce (who Dave knows) for letting me stand on her stepladders on her drive and keeping them steady. Good job the school was out for Easter as all three of us looked very dodgy with long lenses and binoculars doing Peeping Tom impressions.