Waxwings!
Yesterday was a gloomy, bitter cold day. It was brightened a bit when I saw a flock of my favorite birds, cedar waxwings. Waxwings stick around here all winter, but they are fairly itinerant and roam around in groups. When they arrived yesterday, I hadn't seen any waxwings in months, and this was the biggest flock I've ever seen at any time. There were hundreds, maybe thousands of them.
This is just a small fraction of them.
Waxwings are fairly "tame", they usually don't scare easily. I went outside to get some better photos (in a 6 degree temperature) and I felt bad when they got spooked and all flew away.
The whooshing sound of hundreds of wings taking flight was worth it though, it was amazing.
Today they came back. It is sunny out, and some of them perched like big fat ornaments in a giant spruce tree in our yard.
I didn't pay that much attention to birds until I moved to Montana. Since then, I have learned a lot of the who-what-where & why of different bird species. Cedar waxwings are one of my very favorite birds, mostly because they are so darned cute. They mostly eat berries, so when they find a bush or tree with berries this time of year, they really swoop down on it.
Caren
This is just a small fraction of them.
Waxwings are fairly "tame", they usually don't scare easily. I went outside to get some better photos (in a 6 degree temperature) and I felt bad when they got spooked and all flew away.
The whooshing sound of hundreds of wings taking flight was worth it though, it was amazing.
Today they came back. It is sunny out, and some of them perched like big fat ornaments in a giant spruce tree in our yard.
I didn't pay that much attention to birds until I moved to Montana. Since then, I have learned a lot of the who-what-where & why of different bird species. Cedar waxwings are one of my very favorite birds, mostly because they are so darned cute. They mostly eat berries, so when they find a bush or tree with berries this time of year, they really swoop down on it.
Caren