The weather has been strange the last few days. This
morning, it was mostly cloudy with some sunshine breaking through the clouds for
just minutes at a time. Later, we had more showers. But before the rains came,
I walked out to the garden with my camera and noticed a flock of birds flying
into my neighbors' pepper tree. Looking through the telescopic lens, I quickly
realized the large flock of birds were not just the neighborhood finch and
sparrows but Cedar Waxwings!
Approximately 40 to 50 Cedar Waxwings just landed in my
neighbor's Brazilian Pepper Tree. The neighbor's pepper tree is located 15 ft
from my back fence and stands about 30 ft tall with a huge 20 plus width! The
birds came in all at the same time! Landing in every part of the tree, eager to
feast on the berries. Here are some shots of these beautiful birds. This one was
a little cautious and landed on a "Paper tree" (Melaleuca
lucadendra) before it made its way to the pepper tree.
Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla
cedrorum measures 7.25 inches long with a wingspan of 12 inches.
This one stood watch on the utility wire.
The rest of the photos are of hungry birds grabbing all
the tastiest berries off the pepper tree.
Most appear to be in a hurry as they picked and quickly
swallowed the berries.
This guy was more of a pick the berry...
then, squash it...
squash it more...
Now, swallow!
LOL, close-up.
No need to push, there are plenty of berries for
all.
Yummy, which one first?
Taste great!
This bright red one looks best!
This one looks perfect...
Close-up.
Which one next?
This one?
What a great morning this has been. I was delighted to
have been lucky enough to be out in the backyard when this big flock of Cedar
Waxwings flew in. As Eve would say when we go birding, "Always check to make
sure what the bird is and never assume it is just some common ones". I almost
didn't raise my camera up to check thinking it was just our common neighborhood
birds. LOL, look what I would have missed!
Have a great week everyone!
