Cedar Waxwings on the West Campus of MJC

School has not yet begun at MJC (that's coming on Monday), so the West Campus quad has been particularly deserted throughout the holiday break. The campus has an attractive array of different kinds of trees, and when the students aren't milling about, the birds move in.

I was walking from one end of the quad to the other, delivering a print job to the duplicating office, and I saw seven species of bird in the 300 foot stroll. The others will show up as posts one of these times, along with all the birds from my visit at the Sacramento NWR a few days ago (yes, I've gotten behind).

It's probably clear that my favorite sighting was the flock of Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). The birds have such beautiful (and slightly comical) plumage, and their presence seems to be limited to just a few weeks in the spring and fall. Their name comes from the bright orange wax deposits that sometime appear on their wingtips. The function is unknown, but maybe related to attracting mates.

The birds were eating what I think were toyon berries, which are ripe right now, and which were probably the reason I saw so many birds in the quad. I was able to get some of these shots because they were perched in a tree next to the second floor of the building I was running errands in.