Abstract
THE severe winter of 1946-47 was marked in England by an abnormal immigration of waxwings (Bombycilla garrulus) and great grey shrikes (Lanius excubitor), particularly the former. Appearing near Edinburgh in November, flocks of waxwings quickly spread over the eastern counties of England in the latter months of 1946, and in late December appeared in Lakeland, where some flocks of more than twenty birds were noticed. In December and January several birds appeared in Lancashire and Cheshire, near Lancaster, Liverpool, Altrincham and Chester, and as usual in these immigrations the birds were attracted to berry-bearing shrubs and were exceedingly tame. There was a previous immigration of these noticeably brilliant birds into the eastern counties early in 1943 ; but they do not usually penetrate in such large numbers as occurred during the recent immigration into the western half of Britain. Nesting in North Europe, their irregular visitations to Britain were first recorded near York in 1681 (Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc). Odd birds occur almost every winter in Scotland, but Irish records are much fewer than those in England.
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Waxwing Immigration. Nature 159, 805 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159805a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159805a0