NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS
77
budgerigars, and they nestled side by side perfectly still and silent. This
happy state of affairs continued until February 13th when a very pugnacious
mistle-thrush came to the garden and drove the Waxwings away. Two days
later they appeared one evening only to stay in view for a short time and
then vanish, this time for good.
Towards the end of February two Waxwings—presumably a pair—were
seen on a laburnum tree in a Witham garden. They returned to the same
place for a few days in succession. Other observers tell of as many as five
Waxwings seen feeding together on a tall Cotoneaster frigida in front of a
house in Chelmsford. Shrubs were stripped of berries in the Recreation
Ground and in another garden in Cedar Avenue, probably by the same small
flock. One of these birds was found dead on March 5th in the first-men-
tioned garden; the cause of its death is unknown.
This specimen measured 7.4 inches, wing 4.5 inches, and tarsus 0.8 inches.
There were five cerise wax-like tips to the shafts of the secondaries on each
wing and the extremities of the primaries and tail feathers were mustard-
yellow; the breast dove-grey, the back a greyish-brown, the erectile crest
and neck chestnut and the forepart of the head and chin black. It is
recorded by Coward and others that the sexes are alike in colouring and
plumage, though occasionally a male is seen bearing small wax tips to the
tail feathers.
Nothing definite is known to account for the irregular immigration of
Waxwings to England, nor is there any certain explanation why a good
visitation this year should be recorded after previous blank seasons.
John Tarlton.
Duck's landing on Frozen Pond. (Description of plate).—The alighting
tracks and web footprints of the duck were photographed on February 24th,
1947, near the Blackwater estuary at Heybridge, Essex. The marks were
recorded in fine snow which covered the frozen surface of a pond located
under the sheltering sea-wall.
My interpretation of the photograph is as follows: The duck flew down-
wind in an easterly direction. Its feet first grazed the surface of the snow
momentarily, then with two final wing movements (here there are deeper
impressions where the bird's right wing marked the snow—landing possibly
with right wing low), touched down on the ice and skidded for about twenty
inches. The duck sallied off in a southerly direction and then turned,
presumably heading for a reed bed on the north-east corner of the pond.
As I did not see the landing the species must remain unidentified.
John Tarlton.
Notes from Fairstead. The bitter weather of last winter took a heavy
toll of the barn owl population of mid-Essex. Birds were found dead in
the fields and around stackyards on the farms where normally the ration
of mice and rats is plentiful. One icy afternoon during February a barn
owl was seen quartering a field near Shalford (Braintree) in search of food.
All the casualties may not have been due to the hard winter; it has been
suggested that barn owls frequently die from eating rats which have taken
poison.
There has been a dearth of frogs and toads in this part of Essex during
the last ten years. Previously toads were often seen in gardens and shrub-
beries while every pond was crowded with breeding frogs in spring.
A hedgehog hibernated beneath the floorboards of an old tool shed;
its loud snores were heard by the gardener about his work in the shed.
Five young ones were found drowned in a hole on the churchyard bank
nearby.
John Tarlton.