Shortly after 7 A.M.
I was outside with my doggies and saw a great mass of birds in the sky. The flock landed in a tree several houses down and I knew what they were. The Cedar Waxwings have been rather elusive this year, choosing to feed from berry shrubs other than my own. I grabbed my camera and in my flip-flops I walked through the cold, wet grass in hopes of getting close enough to snag a few photos.
I didn't want to get too close and cause them to fly away. Against the backdrop of a still rising sun I was able to get a few shots before they took off again.
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I landed on my bum at one point. Cold bottom is one way to wake up. 
My dog got loose last Saturday morning. As I was out looking for her I slipped on some ice. I recovered before I fell, but in the process I gave myself a Grade II muscle pull in my quad. 
To add insult to injury my dog was waiting for me back at the apartment when I hobbled home. 
Her walks were severely curtailed for a couple days. I'm still sore. 
Ice the first day, and heat since. Next time I'll just hit the street. Scabs heal faster.
Waxwings are some of my favorite birds, they saved me from Siberian Elm bark beetles one year and I have loved them all the more ever since then. The summer they arrived to divest my five huge S. Elms (and the interior of my cabin) of those pesky little bugs, I was also engaging in a massive landscaping endeavor. They were in my trees in a large flock nearly all summer which afforded me the opportunity to observe their behaviors at length and it was a wonderful experience.
They performed their mating rituals within a few feet of where I was working in the yard and I heard their little twittering, tweety mating songs with such regularity throughout they day that I was actually hearing those sounds in my head every night when I fell to sleep, for months. It was an other-worldly sweet way to go to sleep.
The mating dance is surely the inspiration of romantic caricature seen in many a cartoon and film... the pair sit on a branch inches apart at first, then one will hop sideways to be closer to the other and gives it a little snuzzle. Then the snuzzlee hops a couple inches away, they sing for a moment, then the snuzzlee becomes the snuzzler in the same manner as they exchange roles. This can go on for ten minutes or so, then, still singing these twittering tweety sounds, they fly off somewhere only to replaced by another pair. That was one idyllic summer for me, and I had a minimum of twenty bird species that I could identify at the time including five types of hawks, in one little double lot in the city. But I didn't have a camera!
Thanks for the beautiful images, and sparking those memories!
Have you ever spotted a Red Headed Woodpecker? They are gorgeous in person. Photos don't do them justice.
They are somewhat rare in this part of the state, the Pileated is more common.
For some reason I like #6 the best. I also like the shots where the light is coming through the wings. Very cool!!! 
