theeyyy’rrreee bbbaaaaaaccckkkk!
this morning as i was getting ready for work, i heard that familiar shrill whistle outside my bathroom window.
i’ve been seeing cedar waxwings in the neighborhood for a month or so, but i think they’ve been over at my neighbors eating all the berries off his holly bushes. now they are back at my house.
i couldn’t resist getting my camera out for a closer look. i love that bold, black mask across their eyes and the spot of bright yellow on their tail feathers.
my guess is that they are eating the tips off of the new shoots on our ash tree in the backyard. a little salad to go with their berries perhaps??
you might recall a few years ago when the cedar waxwings came to visit. well so far, so good…nothing like that apocolyptic amount of bird shit falling from the sky just yet. let’s hope it stays that way!
anyway, while i was hanging out of my bathroom window taking pictures of waxwings, i caught a glimpse of what i initially thought was a downy woodpecker flying off from the roof of our garage apartment.
but after consulting the field guide to north american birds that i keep on my nightstand {{doesn’t everyone have a bird book next to their bed??}} i discovered that this is actually – i think – a northern flicker!! isn’t that so cool? turns out that flickers are in the woodpecker family and are year-round residents of oklahoma. but unlike most woodpeckers, flickers prefer to forage the ground for insects.
sidenote::if my daughter was here, she would tell me that my “old lady is showing”.
once again, my blog proves to riveting AND informational as it pertains to backyard birdwatching. #you’rewelcome
love,
kelly (AKA-the old lady bird watcher)
I love birds and have been an avid bird watcher for many years – even when I wasn’t an “old” lady. They are one of the beautiful things in life – gifts from God.
Hey! Northern Flickrs! Cool! Ask Terri. I think she had a photo of one last year and in some thread/photo we were discussing what bird it was. I am not a bird watcher. Heck, I can’t see them well, not hear them. I just laughed quietly. Dude, I am an old lady! Hahha. Keep on taking those pictures. This blog is good medicine for me.
oxoxo
I’m an “old” bird watcher, too! I don’t have much luck photographing them, but I keep trying! Your photos are beautiful!
From someone who staked out in my daughter’s playscape with my macro lens in order to take pictures of a bluejay, I appreciate your new visitors! They are beautiful.
Funny you should write about bird watching. I am a member of a local bird watching group here in Nassau, Bahamas. We receive an e-mail before the first Saturday in each month telling us where to meet on this 7×21 mile island for the 8am bird walk. The birdlife actually varies from location. Cedar Waxwings are listed in one of my guide books as a ‘rare visitor’ to some parts of the Bahamas so I do stand a slight chance of seeing one in person 🙂
i love it, kelly!! we are a complete bird nerd family and have promised our kids $100 if they can identify 100 birds this year!! they are well on their way, although they’ll have to work for it! i’ve always loved waxwings… as one of my third grade students said years ago, ‘they look like ninjas!!’