The joy of nature
Friday, May 16, 2008
Outside, on our deck, we put out a bird feeder a few months ago. Originally, we jokingly referred to it as entertainment for our (strictly indoor) cats, Kaede and Tessa. The cats would sit by the door to the deck and stare at birds as they flew to the feeder and back to the tree where they nested. And they would chatter.
After a while, though, we started enjoying the morning visits of our winged friends. We didn’t get visits from any exotic birds, just the usual house sparrows, chickadees, and the occasional Stellars jay, all very hungry as the nesting season begins.
Last Sunday, though, we got a surprise visit. All of a sudden, there was a flutter of activity in our neighbor’s holly tree as a large flock of birds swooped down and started gorging themselves on the very ripe red berries. We are talking about 100s of birds! They made a racket. They were mostly hanging out in the redwood tree a couple of yards away, but every few hours, whenever they felt the urge, they would visit the holly tree and eat the berries, then fly away.
We pulled out all (both, that is) of our bird books in an attempt to identify them and eventually decided they looked like a Cedar Waxwing. The ID was clinched when we saw the photos that clearly showed the characteristic red wing-tip and a yellow strike at the bottom of the tail. The “waxwing” refers to the red marking that is reminiscent of sealing wax.
Birds hanging out in the tree
A Chickadee at the feeder
Identifying markings
Eating a berry
Bombycilla cedrorum (for those interested).
The visit lasted only a couple of days. The flock pretty much stripped all the berries by Wednesday, and then moved on. It is nice to be part of the migration north.
