Rare visitors cause flap

Date published: 03 December 2008

RARE winter visitors have been causing a flap at Oldham College.

Twitchers flocked to the Rochdale Road campus eager to catch a glimpse of 17 waxwings roosting in the college quadrangle.

Only around 100 of the birds visit the UK every winter from Russia and Scandinavia. They are reddish-brown with a black throat, a small black mask round its eye, yellow and white in the wings and a yellow-tipped tail.

Wildlife photographers and film producers Adrian Dancey and Gordon Yates filmed the waxwings feeding on rowan berries.

The RSPB also attended and Gordon said: “It is years since we had these birds in this area and these are the only group around. I love watching these birds they are, by far, my favourite.”