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.
Thursday, October 27, 2022
Where Have All The Berries Gone?
Day 14: And just that quick, there they were! Had I not looked up at the precise moment I did, I would have assumed that the robins had cleaned the tree, but when I raised my eyes from my needlework, I saw the distinctive Zorro mask. "THEY'RE HERE!!!" I shouted exultantly. "THE WAXWINGS ARE HERE!!!" Quite literally, within five minutes, they had stripped the tree of every berry they deemed ripe enough to consume, leaving roughly 10% for the robins who accordingly polished off most of the remainder as well as those on the ground. And then, the Waxwings simply disappeared, their work here done for the season. That said, the robins had gobbled all of the berries from the smaller tree prior to the occasion and quite a few from the larger one (a nursery cultivar which ripens a week or so later), leaving some of the Waxwings wondering where their food source had gone. I can only hope they found enough to carry them through the next leg of their journey.
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