Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Cedar Waxwing

I spent Monday morning at Jackson Bottom Wetlands Preserve. I hadn't been there since May 29th. Time sure flies. Not much had changed since then. The water levels were about the same. They had mowed the paths recently which was nice.
When I got to Pintail Pond I noticed something I hadn't seen before. Along with the swallows flying over the water catching insects, there were Cedar Waxwings doing the same.
I thought it might be a good opportunity to get a close shot of one of these pretty birds as I figured that they would have to rest at some point. So I sat down and waited, but they wouldn't land on any of the tall grasses along the pond, instead flying to the nearby groove of trees. I gave up on them after awhile and walked the back path until I returned to the pond at the shelter.
I sat there for awhile watching the Waxwings waiting for an opportunity. Still no luck, but then I noticed that they were landing on a nearby tree so I made my way over there and got a few pictures. Not bad, but still not as close as I would like.
Finally, I noticed that they were landing on some tall, dead, woody weeds to take momentary rests. This is what I was hoping for and the results are above.
The bottom two pictures are a couple I got of them flying over the water. In the bottom image note that its beak is open in preparation to catch a bug.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for posting. We managed to get a photo of one of these near the water at Gananoque, Ontario. Your series of images helped us make a positive ID.

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