365Caws is now in its 14th year of publication, and was originally intended to end after 365 days. It has sometimes been difficult for me to find new material, particularly during the winter months, but now as I enter my own twilight years, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to provide daily posts. It is my hope that along the way I may have inspired someone to a greater curiosity about the natural world. If so, I can rest, content in the knowledge that my work here has been done.
Wednesday, October 26, 2022
In The Absence Of Waxwings
Day 13: Not a single Cedar Waxwing has come to my yard this fall, nor have they shown up in Cornell's Birdcast migration data for my county. They passed through in the spring, so I can only assume that the recent abundance of wildfire smoke has directed them to another route. That said, my Sitka Mountain-ash trees were laden with berries, and some had begun to drop onto my gravel driveway. Raking leaves out of gravel is one thing, messy berries quite another. I wondered what I was going to do without my clean-up crew. I needn't have worried. A flock of American Robins (Turdus migratorius) cleaned one tree in a matter of days and are now working diligently on the second. They are even foraging deep in the junipers for the ripest berries. Boozy birdies, some of them seem a little shaky on their pins for having overindulged on those which have begun to ferment.
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