A few days ago I had the privilege of watching well over 200 Bohemian Waxwings devour all the fruit off the two pygmy crabapple trees at church. I had driven over in the early afternoon to fill the public bird feeders I maintain, and spied the waxwings. As a reminder these feeders are just up the shore from McQuade Harbor and thus on a popular migration route (both for birds and Twin Citians escaping their large metro area for the North Shore and Gunflint Trail)
Over the past two weeks I have noticed an increased number of waxwings moving down the shore as the fruit trees further north get eaten over for the winter.
Bohemian Waxwings at French River Lutheran Church
Wish my mini apple trees were on their route❣️
In the 90s here on the Central Coast of California I experienced an invasion of Cedar Waxwings during a winter storm, heavy rain and wind. We had Pyracantha bushes and Toyon trees covered in red berries. That is they were covered until the Waxwings arrived. It seemed they took only minutes to strip the berries and move on.
Yup! They move in large flocks in the winter. Glad you got to see the Bohemian’s smaller, more southern oriented cousin. Cedar Waxwings are often a reasonably early returning bird here in the Northland. They also like to eat apple trees blossoms. Until I saw that behavior I did not realize the blossoms were also a food source.
love these! glad they had some berries