Local Town Pages www.franklintownnews.com
Page 14
April 1. 2011
Migratory Birds are Finally Returning to New England NATURE CALLS BY AMY BEAUMONT GOT WAX? With the long awaited arrival of spring, migratory birds are finally returning to New England all around us. I was fortunate enough to be at my front window recently enjoying morning tea when a flock of Cedar Waxwings suddenly appeared in the yard. While I was grabbing a camera, they were
grabbing the berries off the old holly bush. The flock was traveling with several robins, and they too seemed to love the feast. If you’ve never seen a waxwing, they are a very sleek crested bird around 7” with bold yellow tips on the tail feathers and red wax-like tips on their wing feathers. Add that mysterious black mask and you’ve got one slick looking bird. I’ve always thought of the waxwing as a ‘cape’ bird, but its range is really quite vast. They breed from southeastern
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Alaska to Newfoundland, and then south to California, Illinois and Virginia. They winter from British Columbia, the Great Lakes region and from New England southward. As for labeling the waxwing a ‘cape’ bird, it is just far easier to spot them in areas like Wellfleet. The head of the meadow trail just next door in Truro is also great spot to find and photograph these birds, although most of the images I captured while there were lousy. The attraction to these particular spots is undoubtedly the menu. Blueberries and chokecherries are their top choices – both of which are prolific all over the outer cape. Spotting the waxwings in this area is a bit more difficult. They always seem to fly high above the tree
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line, never making a close approach. I’ve tried attracting them to the deck for years with offerings of jelly and small fruits with zero luck, so the flock that showed up right in the yard was certainly a rare sighting. They decorated the holly bush quite brilliantly for a good long while, wiping out the berries until the very last one was gone. They have been described as tame, allowing a very close approach. I never found that theory to be true until I broke out the cameras and followed them around the yard. They all but ignored me while they were stuffing their faces. I was even able to capture some video, with the highlight being their bathing in the yard pond. The group hung around for
several days, wiping out any other berries they could find, and then vanished as quickly as they had appeared. Since then, I’ve seen them in smaller groups high in the trees and can often hear their highpitched call. Good thing I have the pictures to refer back to as I get the distinct feeling their visit here was a rare one. While researching the waxwing, it has been noted that they have a comical habit of passing berries from one bird to the next, until the last bird eats the prize. As for the accompanying photo, I have my prize. Welcome back waxies! Amy Beaumont is a portrait photographer and freelance writer. She can be reached at amy@beaumontphotography.com
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