They're Here!

The Waxwings are here!

Just yesterday I was looking at our big old serviceberry tree outside our window, and noticed its berries had come in, but were still green, and I said to my husband off-handedly, “Have you heard from the Waxwings? Any emails?”

“No, nothing yet.”

We never know exactly when they are coming. Like the fun family friends or wild cousins that travel around, free as the breeze, unattached to boring desk jobs or other mainstream conformity, our cedar waxwing friends arrive every year on their own schedule. And just like the free-spirited folks we love to have drop in, they come every spring for about 2 weeks, and throw an unforgettable bacchanalic celebration in our humble serviceberry tree. It’s wonderful.

So this morning, I woke up, looked out the window, and – there they were! - as if they had they heard me asking about them. They were just as beautiful as I remembered them. (They are sort of shaped like cardinals, but are a beautiful olive-golden color. Their head crests are flattened softly back on their heads, like delicate Robin Hood caps. They wear black eye masks, and have bright red and yellow paint-dipped tail feathers.)

Their arrival and subsequent feast is much like any other annual party or family reunion: full of celebration and ritual. The berries aren’t red yet, so they hopped around on the branches, took a berry or two, and passed the ceremonial offering back and forth between them, doing a little hop and head-nod-away in between each pass. Their initial festival–opening-thank-you-folk-dance enacted, they flew on elsewhere and have not been back since. I know they are “in the neighborhood,” but now that they have checked-in, they have probably moved on to some other favorite spot, and will be back as soon as those berries turn red. And THEN, all of the neighborhood birds come over to join in, and there will be a 14-day-long party in that tree, with singing, chattering, hopping, berry passing back and forth, dancing, and general merry-making just outside our window. I can’t wait!

Post Script..... Just think, we didn’t have to do anything to get ready for our company, other than step in front of the chain saws last May, preventing our neighborhood association from chopping down that big old tree ...

Here are three of them, hanging out.