Thursday, February 24, 2022

Rush Hour

It is just past 7:00 in the morning and the sun is starting to peek over the horizon through the woods in the East.  Temperature is a challenging 39F and will hit 40F by this afternoon. It was almost 70F yesterday and that has been the state of things. Winter followed by summer followed by fall all in one week! 

I saw a flock of robins flying in and turning the leaves in my backyard as I sipped my morning coffee.  This means to me there may be the rarer flock of Cedar Waxwings nearby.  They tend to move together. It is that time of year.

I go to the front window, near the holly, and as expected, I see the silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings against the bright morning sky in the tall tulip tree. I go outside very quietly and stop just at the second porch step. I sit slowly on the cold flagstone in my flannel pajamas and lean against my cold stone wall and slowly lift my camera to the tops of the nearby tulip tree. There are dozens and dozens of the Waxwings!  My photo is backlit, and therefore, a harder challenge for this amateur photographer.

There are 40 or 50 silhouettes of Cedar Waxwings surveying the front yard!  I sit for several minutes taking photos.

The Waxwings remain quiet.
Because my angle is so low, the close-ups do not show the beauty of these bandits.



Wednesday, February 09, 2022

Hungry visitors

It is that time of the year when a birdwatcher, if careful, can catch a waxwing at the holly berries. They, the berries, are something like fine wine and have to be frozen and thawed and then frozen and then brought to the exact correct temperature before the birds will begin to gorged. The waxwings share with the robins. Below was taken at an angle through a hazy window, because that cold weather just did not make me eager to stand with camera in hand and attempt to quietly get close enough to them. They are shy if I go out the front door and if they fly away, there is no telling when they will return.  I would be a popsicle by then.



If you look closely at the waxwing photo above, you can see another waxwing below hidden by the evergreen holly with just the flash of its' yellow tail showing.