Many Cedar Waxwings and a Fox Sparrow at Marie Curtis Park (10 am & 1 pm groups) / November 19, 2019

Cedar Waxwings are truly a “here today – gone tomorrow” species. I haven’t had a single one this fall and yet we had hundreds enjoying the ripe, red Amur Honeysuckle berries this morning in 3 degree, overcast conditions. By the afternoon, they had disappeared.

Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing
Cedar Waxwings
Cedar Waxwing

I usually see a few Fox Sparrows in spring migration but this was my first this fall. This species spends the summer just south of the Arctic and the winter in the southern U.S.A.

Fox Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
Fox Sparrow

Species list: mallard, American black duck, bufflehead, herring gull, ring-billed gull, belted kingfisher, red-bellied woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, blue jay, American crow, black-capped chickadee, cedar waxwing,European starling,  house sparrow, northern cardinal, American goldfinch, white-throated sparrow, fox sparrow.  (19 species)

Northern Cardinal (male)
Ring-billed Gulls
Mallards
“Bib” Duck
American Black Duck (female)
Hairy Woodpecker (female)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (female)
American Crow
Northern Mockingbird
Northern Mockingbird

Park scenes:

Wasp’s nest with leaves

10 a.m. group:

1 p.m. group:

by Shagbark Hickory tree

NATURE POETRY

In the slack wind of November
The fog forms and shifts.
All the world comes out again
When the fog lifts.                     – Christina Rossetti (1830–94)

Miles Hearn

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