The strippers returned last weekend - and once again attacked our lone mountain ash tree devouring all it's berries in a matter of minutes. Greedy, greedy fellas! They had obviously cased the joint, or simply remembered what a great party they had last year - in fact the whole neighbourhood produced rich pickings, and they gorged themselves silly, and then swooped in huge groups from one front lawn to the next.
And 20 minutes later they had completely disappeared. Probably off to pillage the next housing development somewhere. How do they migrate with such huge bellies?!
If I've checked the internet correctly, then I believe these are Bohemian Waxwings which seem native to Europe, Asia and North America and like to nest in coniferous forests.
And I liked the definition of their latin name - Bombycilla garrulus - which I have stolen from Wiki.
"The generic name Bombycilla (from Latin Bombyx [silk/silk moth] + cilla [tail] ) is a direct translation of the Swedish name "Sidensvans' - silk tail and refers to the silky soft plumage of the bird; the species name garrulus means 'noisy' or 'quarrelsome'. "
Lordy - I know a few Homo sapiens garrulus, that's for sure!
