Early Spring Waxwings
March 15th, 2009
I went down to Mud Lake yesterday afternoon and was delighted to find nature waking up all over the place. Crows carrying nest material, robins and cardinals singing, chipmunks out of their burrows, Red-Winged Blackbirds freshly arrived from migration, and last but not least, waxwings galore.
1680x1050 wallpaper
In a brushy area near the outside fence of Mud Lake, a mixed flock of Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings, along with a few robins, had staked out some small trees with last year's buckthorn berries. They clustered in taller trees and sallied down by ones or twos to pick the berries. The above was one of the Bohemians.
Another view of him:
Bohemian Waxwings have been here all winter, but these were the first I chanced to see since spring of 2008. The arboretum is often a good place to find them (they like crabapples). They'll be on their way out now, heading back to their breeding grounds in the far north.
Here are a couple of the Cedars:
To me they're even more gorgeous. I love the warm gold of their bellies blending into brown. Fortunately for me, Cedar Waxwings are common breeders in our area!
Waxwings, collectively, are among the gentlest and gentlemanliest of birds. Their social structure is egalitarian. They never squabble. Naturalists have seen them line up on a branch and pass a berry from bird to bird. Each bird patiently passes it along, the last bird eats it, and then the ritual repeats until everyone is fed.
They are also jokingly known as the "party animals" of the avian world. In their eagerness to stuff themselves with berries in spring, they sometimes ingest fermented berries by mistake, and become quite drunk.
March 15th, 2009
I went down to Mud Lake yesterday afternoon and was delighted to find nature waking up all over the place. Crows carrying nest material, robins and cardinals singing, chipmunks out of their burrows, Red-Winged Blackbirds freshly arrived from migration, and last but not least, waxwings galore.
1680x1050 wallpaper
In a brushy area near the outside fence of Mud Lake, a mixed flock of Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings, along with a few robins, had staked out some small trees with last year's buckthorn berries. They clustered in taller trees and sallied down by ones or twos to pick the berries. The above was one of the Bohemians.
Another view of him:
Bohemian Waxwings have been here all winter, but these were the first I chanced to see since spring of 2008. The arboretum is often a good place to find them (they like crabapples). They'll be on their way out now, heading back to their breeding grounds in the far north.
Here are a couple of the Cedars:
To me they're even more gorgeous. I love the warm gold of their bellies blending into brown. Fortunately for me, Cedar Waxwings are common breeders in our area!
Waxwings, collectively, are among the gentlest and gentlemanliest of birds. Their social structure is egalitarian. They never squabble. Naturalists have seen them line up on a branch and pass a berry from bird to bird. Each bird patiently passes it along, the last bird eats it, and then the ritual repeats until everyone is fed.
They are also jokingly known as the "party animals" of the avian world. In their eagerness to stuff themselves with berries in spring, they sometimes ingest fermented berries by mistake, and become quite drunk.
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