MOTIVATION is needed to get up and running again following the Christmas period - too little exercise, too much to eat and being inundated with some pretty wonderful gifts.

I hope that I have also managed to recognise Christmas for what it really is and make a New Year promise to myself to try to see as much as I can of the wonderful countryside and wildlife with which we are blessed.

One immediate tonic is the report that large groups of waxwings are reported to be heading across from the East coast, driven ahead of the cold Arctic conditions that have seen below-zero temperatures at night, accompanied by heavy frosts.

It wasn’t that long ago that we had a considerable influx of waxwings into the Taunton area, with large flocks gathered in such places as Sainsbury’s car park at Hankridge Farm and in the tall trees that run along the bottom of the sports field in College Way, Galmington.

Where the waxwng is not seen that often it is a real treat for the birdwatcher. They belong to a group of birds that are confined to the extreme north. When they have turned up in years gone by they caused a great deal of fascination as people for centuries did not know where they came from; they were strange looking and disappeared as quickly as they came.

The name waxwing refers to the bright red and yellow spots on the bird’s wings. In Germany and Sweden the bird is called 'silk-tail' because of the fine yellow band on its tail or perhaps also because of its tail-like crest. The scientific name Bombycilla originates from the Greek Bombyx which means silk - evidently a reference to the silky plumage of the waxwing.

As it is well-known in its winter quarters it is strange that the breeding habits of this bird were completely unknown until the late 1800s. Breeding is confined to the taiga forests in northern Scandinavia and Siberia. The first ornithologist to find a nest of the waxwing was an Englishman, John Wolley. He organised a widespread network of egg collectors in the north of Finland, Norway, Sweden and even Russia to collect eggs of northerly birds.

He distributed special pictures of waxwings to his helpers and finally, after two years, he succeeded in finding two clutches of the species, the first waxwing eggs known to science. Fortunately, nowadays in our enlightened society, collecting waxwing information is undertaken with the use of a camera.

The nests are often difficult to find as they are built in dense trees and consist of lichens and spruce twigs, and thus merge very well with the tree itself. The Finnish ornithologist Finnila described in 1914 how he had to take down a nest from the tree to be able to photograph the chicks. As he was fetching his camera from a few yards away the two parents landed on the ground and fed their chicks in the nest.

The enormous movements of waxwings southwards on to the Continent once caused surprise and superstitious fear. They were generally considered to bring disaster wherever they turned up. In Holland the waxwing was known as the plague bird. A piece in old German literature says ‘When the bird in the Hercynic Forest (a vast forest area in central Germany) incessantly flies around and its feathers shine like fire, this is a sign of approaching darkness’.

I know that we birdwatchers in this part of the world will be absolutely delighted if waxwings turn up again in numbers, and we certainly would not regard it as a sign of ill-fortune. Here’s to 2009, may we all have good birdwatching.

Diary date: Sunday, January 11. Cheddar Reservoir. Meet at car park, map ref ST446535, 10am. Led by John Connolly (Taunton 274272).