A Waxwing Winter?

It's not only redwings and fieldfares that are invading in vast numbers this icy winter (in Kent yesterday I saw an orchard entirely filled with a mixed flock of these, perching on every branch of every tree), it looks as if it might also be a waxwing winter. This unmistakable visitor from the forests of eastern Europe is extremely partial to the berries of the rowan, as well as pyracantha, cotoneaster and their like - just the kind of sturdy vegetation favoured by the planners of car parks and shopping centres. This means that when waxwings are around, you might well see them in such unexpected places - and, being unused to humans, they're surprisingly tame and tend to carry on feeding regardless. Cut to this morning, and there I was on my usual Sunday morning train in to work, gazing drowsily out of the window (it had been quite a day down in Kent) before getting down to a book, when I saw it - my first waxwing! The train was past it in a second, but there was no mistaking what it was, especially as it was feeding greedily on a rowan right by the track and seemed untroubled by the passing train. If waxwings have reached my part of south London/Surrey, this must surely be a waxwing winter! Tomorrow I intend to go out searching, in the hope of getting a much longer look at this extraordinary bird.