Waxwings returning for the harvest.

The Bohemian Waxwings are returning to harvest the abundant crop of fruit remaining on landscape trees and bushes in the city. I took this shot this afternoon on W. 15th. Ave.

From a distance I couldn’t see what was attracting the Waxwings to this tree. I had to get close before I could see the small black fruit.

Mountain Ash are a favorite food of the Waxwings. The Mountain Ash a are commonly used landscape tree in the City of Anchorage. Long before spring there won’t be a single red berry left in the city.

This is just a portion of a large scattered flock of Bohemian Waxwings at student housing on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus on Saturday. Since they like to stay high in the trees, it is often difficult to find birds low enough for close-ups.


This message was edited Nov 26, 2007 11:12 PM

This was one of the few birds low enough for a close-up shot below the birds in the above picture.

Beautiful pics Gary!

I love Waxwings!

Thanks for posting them!

The plant in the first two pics is a species of cherry, perhaps Bird Cherry (Prunus padus), Chokecherry (Prunus virginiana), or Amur Cherry (Prunus maackii). Next is a species of rowan (Sorbus subgenus Sorbus; lots of species).

Totted up just over 100 in the big flock.

Resin

Wow. Beautiful Shot, and lucky you.

Oh, I want to see one of those so bad......

Beautiful photos of beautiful birds.

We used to have a persimmon tree growing in a neighboring property. Every year the waxwings would cover the tree and eat all the leftover fruit. Some of them would hang upside down to reach the fruit. Waxwings are stunning birds.

Hi from Seward, we've had a flock of about 35 Bohemian Waxwings around here for a couple of weeks, now. We keep them coming by collecting Mt Ash clusters and freezing them in plastic shoppingbags and when the trees are bare, we hang the berries along the porch to keep them coming all winter. We also have the Mayday or Bird Cherry in the yard and they've cleaned one completely and have one tree left to go.
Carol

Wow thats a great thing to do Carol!

Very nice pic!

Today was a rare sun shiny day, so I tried to get some good Bohemian Waxwing pictures. I chased several flocks around town, but they weren't stopping to feed long enough for picture taking. This is the only picture for today. I was out of the truck trying to take pictures of Starlings when this small flock landed near me. They only stayed long enough to snap one quick shot.

Love that colorful pic Gary!

LOL, I often think I need to stop looking at birds in the air while driving. ;-)

LOL Pelle, I do the same thing. I almost climbed over my BF while he was driving to look at a hawk on a telephone pole.

A friend of mine save a cedar waxwing last summer, only to lose it 5 days later. I've got to e-mail him to remind him to send me the pics he took.

Great pics Gary and Carol. I would love to see a waxwing... Other than in the Columbus Zoo this past summer.

My favorite birds! I have only seen them once, and have been hooked on them since.
Have been watching for them, but have not been lucky enough to see any.

Gary, what a nice photo. Pretty good for "chasing" them around all day.

Sunrise today was 9:40AM, sunset 3:54 PM, for 6 hours 14 minutes of daylight, a loss of 4 minutes from yesterday. The sun is low on the southern horizon at mid-day, add in a heavy overcast, not a decent day for photography. However, I did take the camera along when I ran a few errands. Thanks to the flicked finger of fate, I encounter a large flock (200+) of Waxwings. They were feeding on the Mountain Ash berries on the public library lawn. There are about two dozen small trees, 12 to 15 feet tall.

I was standing under one, tree taking picture of the Waxwings in the next tree, and getting splattered by pieces of berries raining down on me.

I took 140 pictures, but most were so dark they weren’t any good. The light was just to dim at 3 PM. I only save a few of the better shots, and they had to be edited on the computer. It was disappointing, because I had never before been so close to a large flock.

Grasmussen,
Your pictures of the Bohemian Waxwings bring back memories of the only time I have ever seen these elegant-looking birds. I was probably in grade school and already into learning different bird names. There was a woods by our house with parkland all around. One day a flock of about 50 Bohemians descended on the highbush cranberry bushes that were grouped in one area. They hung around for about 2 weeks until every last berry was eaten and then were gone and I've never seen another Bohemian since. They're quite nomadic (hence the name, I guess) so now I at least know where some can be found though Anchorage is pretty far to go. I did spend a couple of days in Anchorage back in the middle 70's on my way out to Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians for a season of working on the King crab boats. It was quite an experience. It was out there that I saw what I consider one of the prettiest ducks there is--the Harlequin. Thanks for the pictures.
Jim

What handsome birds!!! I would LOVE to actually see one! You guys are fortunate to have so many in your area!! So beautiful, so beautiful!!...

Lovely pics Gary!

LOL, you got a berry shower? Well worth it for the shots!

Thanks so much for posting them; their such a beautiful bird!

Pelle :-)

That's putting it politely!!

Pieces of berry after waxwing digestive processing, of course . . . ;-)

But if you want to grow some new rowan trees, the waxwing-"processing" assists germination of the seeds.

Resin

JWS, I have to agree on the beauty of Harlequins, you see them so much on salt water they seem like sea ducks. But in spring when the cricks in the high mountains melt and we are fishing for "golden fins", (landlocked Dolly Varden) we see those same ducks with ducklings bobbing in the most impossibly tiny little streams that tumble over rocks (small cricks you can step across) and the tiny ducklings just bounce down the rocks and rivulets with alder and other shrubs hanging over the water, mom & dad hurrying them along to more cover. Beautiful sight, 50 miles inland from any salt water. Where the little cricks meet the lakes of differing sizes they flock up, still young and start learning to dive. There are snails in cricks and lakes I believe they feed on, about the size of your little fingernail at the biggest, mostly. When they finally make it to the Bay here at Seward, they flock up into large rafts, sometimes in the 20's or 30's in number, I think small like that for enough to watch above while some are diving and not deplete a resource in each area as they work around the Bay (Resurrection). After that, flocks of hundreds are seen on the open seas.
Carol

When I first felt things hitting me from above, I expected that to be true. When I looked at my coat, I was surprised to see splats of fresh red berries. Apparently when they bit down on the berries, a portion of the berry spurts out.

Unfortunately, that is becoming a problem. The European species is used for landscaping. It is faster growing and more of a tree. The native species is slower growing and more of a scrubby bush, seldom used for landscaping. The Waxwings are spreading seeds widely. As a result there is a proliferation of this non-native species. I have to pull seedling as weeds, from my garden. On this side of the pond, almost no one would know what a "Rowan tree" is. The common name is Mt. Ash for all of the Sorbus on our side of the pond.

Carol, I have been waiting for a sunny day, hopefully tomorrow, to go down to Seward. Seward has a number of birds not found in Anchorage. My only photos of Harlequins were taken at Fourth of July Creek. I was hoping to catch some closer to shore this time. Also, want shots of Chestnut-backed Chickadees.

Great pics everyone!

I love Waxwings! So beautiful and elegant! I haven't seen any for years, but when I did, I was speechless! ;-)

Thanks for sharing the photos and 'stories' everyone!

Marilyn

This afternoon I returned to the library lawn not really expecting to see any Waxwings. To my surprise there were more than yesterday, possibility up to a 1000 at times. The noise from the city buses and some trucks would cause large number to fly up and circle around, then return to feed. At times there were Waxwings all around me, both flying and feeding. There were always a few birds staying behind feeding, when the flocks flew up, because of the noise. They didn't pay much attention to me, would land in trees above my head. The trees were nearly striped of berries. So, today they were cleaning up the pieces of berries which had fallen to the ground, as well as the few remaining on the trees. A row of trees, in plan sight, a block away was red with hanging berries, but not a single Waxwing was feeding there. Unfortunately, the light was only slightly better today.

Grasmussen you have D-Mail

Gary,

Fantastic shot! Thanks for sharing!

Marilyn

The Waxwings kept returning to the clusters of red berries until the smallest specks were gone.

However, this bird is looking in the direction of another row of the same species laden red with berries. Just across 36th Street, at the opposite end of the block. Clouds of waxwings were moving in, out and around the library grounds, stripping the last specks from the trees, then moving to clean up under the trees. Not a single bird was feeding from the other set of trees. Why???

This afternoon was an incredible experience! I was at the center of a fluid constantly moving cloud of Bohemian Waxwings. My fingers got so numb I could hardly hold the camera, before the cold forced me to leave. I’ve been chasing Waxwings for a long time, and had much better lighting for photography. But, never anything close to this afternoon. A truly surreal experience, beyond expression.

Gary Rasmussen

Thats great Gary; glad you had such a wonderful experience!

My feelings also! ;-)

Marilyn

How cool to see all those waxwings! That last photo is gorgeous!

We finally had a sunny day. However, we are down to 5 hours, 33 minutes, and 30 seconds, between sun rise and sun set. About 3 hours of enough light for picture taking. I located a large flock of Waxwings and took 110 shots, before the memory card was full. A few are good pictures. I'll post a few of the best as I have time to sort them.

Gary

Beautiful shot Gary!!!

Been a few Waxwings turning up here too, I saw two a couple of days ago. Didn't have my camera with me though. Maybe more will arrive over the next month or so. Same species as Gary's.

Resin

Gary..your pics are works of art!

Carol and Gary, Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful photos. Gary, your final sunny day shot is amazing!!!

Gary, I'm impressed by the beautiful shots you got. They are not easy to photograph. I tried on several occasion, to take pictures of them, in my 2 crabapple trees in my front yard. But they always flew away, before I could get a good shot. They are beautiful birds. So velvety. I'm so glad you were able to share them here.
Bern