I had the most amazing experience tonight.  Arriving home from work about 7:30 p.m. the sun had begin to lower in the sky when I took the dog out to the front yard after her supper.  As she was sniffing around looking for a good place for her deposit I became aware of a large amount of birds flying overhead, from the neighbor’s oak trees to my birch trees.  More and more birds began to flock into the birch trees, but I couldn’t get a good look at them as I was facing into the setting sun.

I moved with the dog around to the other side of my grove of trees, trying to be quiet which was a stretch while attached to an eight month old sheltie.  The birds were swooping out of the trees snapping at insects and then returning to the trees.  I still couldn’t tell for sure what they were.  The setting sun was making them glow gold, and I thought I could catch a bit of a topper on the head and maybe a bright stripe tipping the tail feathers.  But I wasn’t sure.

I could hear their wings as they swooped and glided above me.  I moved further around the trees, and could see that the sky above my trees in the back yard was filled with these birds.  I began to suspect they were cedar waxwings which move in large groups and decend on an area all at once.  For a picture of a cedar waxwing, check out this site: 

 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Cedar_Waxwing.html

I stood quietly, telling Katie to Shhhh! and watched for quite a time, then moved her inside and went back out with my binoculars.  Sure enough, when I could finally find one that sat still for a second, at the tip of an oak tree, it was confirmed.  A whole flock of cedar waxwings had set up a temporary feeding station in my yard. 

I stood in the yard watching them playing and eating, swooping, twisting in the golden light, and listening to them chirp to each other for a long time, until the sun went down and the air cooled and finally they flew away, one big flock of beautiful birds glowing in the last rays of the sun. 

 

Hey Mom, wish you could have seen this.  Then again, since I saw it, I guess you did too!