SIR – My aunt lives at Bolton Junction and has a lovely garden, with red berry bushes (pyracantha and cotoneaster salicifolius) against the side of her wall.

This week a flock of birds flew into her garden and within two days stripped the berry bushes bare.

My Collins Garden Birds book suggests it’s a waxwing one of our rarest and most distinctive town and garden birds. It is starling-sized, with soft brown plumage, a distinctive crest, red and yellow markings on wings, and the bottom of its tail is yellow.

Has anybody else in the Bradford area had their red berry bushes stripped by a flock of birds, or actually identified a flock of waxwings in the area in the last couple of weeks?

I am not a bird expert but would be interested in T&A readers’ comments.

Margaret Price, Manor House Gardens, Eccleshill