#45 - Cedar Waxwing

I am fortunate that I see Cedar Waxwings around our property fairly often in both the spring and fall.  In the fall, however, it's more common to see large flocks of 50 to several hundred converging on the cedars and poke weed.  This morning when I went out to fill the feeders, I could hear them, along with robins, all over the woods.  Ear-magic. The melodic chatter of robins accompanied by the thin, high zeeee of the waxwings, and accented by the songs of white-throated sparrows and bluebirds,  and the chips of cardinals, titmice, and chickadees.  

I spent two hours lurking, skulking and creeping, trying to get shots of both species.  Invariably, wherever I had positioned myself, the birds were at another part of our garden.  In fact, this shot was taken from quite a distance, then heavily cropped.  Not my finest shot of a cedar waxwing, but I'm happy to have caught it in the act of trying to grab a poke berry.  The waxwings are very acrobatic when feeding on berries, but it's hard to catch them in focus.  This particular bird is a juvenile, still showing it's speckled plumage.  To see an adult waxwing and a freshly-bathed robin, head over to Flickr, starting HERE

One of the Milbert's tortoiseshells was back in the garden this morning, much to my delight, along with a late-migrant male monarch.  Temps are heading down tomorrow, so I don't expect to be seeing many more butterflies.  (Sad face.)  In fact, I think I'll head up the road to the farm and walk their flower fields one last time, maybe come home with some sunflowers...

Happy Friday.

xo
Debbi

And if you'd like to see all of the yard birds I've blipped so far this year, you can see them HERE