Pete

Just to confirm your waxwing observation….or non-observation…I have done my usual urban trawl varying my routes prior to lockdown and then using my work visits and weekly shopping trips after lockdown to scour all my known rowan, service tree etc. sites. Nothing so far this winter in Lancaster, Torrisholme or Morecambe. The fruit was plentiful in September but rapidly stripped by visiting blackbirds, redwing and fieldfare. There are a handful of pink or white rowans with a few fruit still, Lentworth Drive near Booths is one. The habit of silage farmers attacking their hedges as soon as allowed in the Autumn and prior to slurry spreading is removing so much hedge fruit up to the New year. I wish they’d just wait til January or just flail what is essential. There is nothing left for winter thrushes in the remaining hedgerows by the end of October…..then as soon as April comes so many spray with a broad leaved weedkiller under the walls both sides. An obsession with neatness. It is so depressing.