Oh, how I love the little Cedar Waxwings! They visit the region during their spring and fall migrations elsewhere, and will camp out on available perches. Sometimes the perches are in my front yard, along the Tuolumne River, or sometimes in our unofficial bird refuge on the West Campus of MJC, the "mini-wilderness".
The mini-wilderness is actually a drainage reservoir that often has a shallow pond, a cattail thicket, and a small oak and eucalyptus woodland. There is a dead cottonwood tree that seems to host a different flock of birds each evening. There has been a day of Red-winged Blackbirds, European Starlings, American Robins, Yellow-billed Magpies, and an occasional solitary Egret. But today I was thrilled to see a large flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum)
The pond has swelled in the last few days as a result of the intense storms of the first half of March. In addition to the roosting birds in the cottonwood tree (center of the picture), there have been Mallard Ducks and Canada Geese.
The Waxwings were high up in a tall tree, so I got no close-up shots. I got some nice ones a few weeks ago, so here is a replay of one of my favorite shots of one of my favorite birds...
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