Cedar Waxwings

 

Cedar Waxwing Eating Cotoneaster Berries Near Spreckels Lake

I haven't seen any cedar waxwings since mid-December and was wondering when they'd come back around. Today I heard a flock of them trilling as I was biking toward the beach on JFK Drive. They took a surprisingly long time to return after initially being frightened off when I foolishly let my kickstand loudly clack into place when I stopped. Later, I'd sit and wait for some pygmy nuthatches to return to a rain puddle near the Bison Paddock, only to finally give up and settle for bathing sparrows.

This was the semi-foggy view out our back window this morning, with eucalyptus trees and Twin Peaks.

Some of the plum trees around town are just getting started while others are already fully in bloom.

They were still wet from yesterday's light rain.

White Ramping Fumitory

I was walking up the sidewalk in Forest Hill and noticed a strong floral scent, which I first thought had been a plume of perfume left by a woman who'd just gotten into her car across the street. (I often smell soap plumes that have wafted off hikers on Mt. Tam's Cataract Trail and wonder if they take a second shower when they get back home.) Anyway, I soon noticed the lemon flowers and turned around to walk back and see if the plume was still there. It was, and the sweet smell was definitely due to the lemon blossoms.

Cedar Waxwing

For some reason, the search feature on the blog doesn't pick up all the instances of any given phrase. Searching for "cedar waxwing" failed to turn up my post from December 11, 2025. It'd be a more helpful feature if you could actually rely on it. By the way, my individual blog posts tend to get between 25-75 views, but the blog as a whole gets a few hundred views per day. They must be coming in via search (and then they go away forever).

Bathing Sparrows

RBS was still at its favorite tree at South Lake today, creating ever more sapsucker holes. The bird had been pecking around the back of the tree until another bird flew into the higher branches and emitted a really interesting, buzzing call that I'm not sure I've ever heard before. I was trying to visually locate the bird in the dense foliage when all of a sudden a red-shouldered hawk loudly swooped onto the scene just behind the sapsucker tree, and a second red-shouldered hawk that had been perched just out of sight behind the tree flew up to meet it, both of them screeching and squawking, before flying east over the lake together. The "interesting call" had obviously been a warning to other birds.

I was lucky enough to get another shot of a common yellowthroat at Middle Lake today. I've been going back to the "birdy area" where I recently saw the Allen's hummingbird, but it hasn't been birdy there since, and the hummer hasn't stuck around either. The yellowthroat was moving through brush on the opposite end of the lake.

* * *