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| Cedar Waxing Eating Cotoneaster Berries, Sunset Parkway |
I only gradually realized I'd entered cedar waxwing country. The thin, high-pitched trilling of numerous birds, an unmistakeable sound that always captures my attention right away, was masked today by traffic noise along Sunset Boulevard. I saw the birds flying back and forth across the boulevard before I heard them. The more sturdy calls of a couple of robins cut through the traffic, but the birds I saw flying were too small and speedy to be robins.
As I looked up at a couple of birds fairly close by, I was happily surprised to see they were waxwings. They were in a difficult lighting situation, and the Lumix FZ80D had a very hard time locking in the focus. While the lens was hunting, I could see that the two waxwings were having a little game or ritual with a seed. They passed it back and forth several times, and thankfully the lens finally locked in on time to catch the final round before they both flew away.
Some of the birds were snagging cotoneaster berries on my side of the boulevard, but the bushes had been mostly picked clean, and the dappled light was atrocious for photography. Meanwhile, the bushes that were chockablock with berries were in a thin median strip between the boulevard and the southbound onramp from Lincoln Boulevard. I decided to try my luck out there despite the sparse protection, and the first Muni bus that entered the ramp gave me a friendly warning honk. Nevertheless, the spot seemed safe enough to fire off a few frames.
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| Not the first gooseberry flowers I've seen this season, but this good-sized bush along the Sunset Parkway was in full bloom today. A bumblebee visited several of the flowers but didn't linger at any of them, so I never got a shot. |
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| A couple of western bluebirds were perched so cooperatively in the morning sun that I couldn't resist snapping a photo. This is the male... |
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| ...and this is the female. |
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| Berry on the Left |
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| Berry on the Right |
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The Berry-passing Game
(Apparently this is bonding and/or courting behavior.) |
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| Made in the Shade |
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| Tail feathers gathered up... |
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| ...and tail feathers fanned down. |
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| Dive With A Prize |
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| This white-crowned sparrow must have taken a cue from the waxwings to give the berries a try. As a local who's gotten good tips from tourists myself, I can relate. |
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| Berry Pickers |
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| Waxwing in Blue |
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| Loading Up |
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| Note the red waxy-looking tips on the wing feathers. They are carotenoid pigments and get their color from the berries. The yellow-tipped tail feathers are also pigmented by carotenoids. |
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| The great blue heron was stalking from a floating perch in Metson Lake and remained unfazed when a small flock of eight Canada geese came in honking, then landed with gentle splashes. |
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