One of the highlights of this spring was the visit we received from a flock of cedar waxwings. The showed up one day looking like masked bandits and parked themselves in the bare limbs of our neighbor's Little Leaf Linden tree. A couple times a day they swept in to devour the barries on and under our holly tree. Within a week, most of the berries were off the ground. Gorged on sugar, the flocked moved on.
(Our camera died so I'm borrowing this image from a fine Flickr fan.)
Before this visit, my only association with waxwings was from the opening lines of the epic poem in Vladimir Nabokov's meta novel
Pale Fire. I went around repeating it for weeks:
I am the shadow of the waxwing, slain
By the false azure of the window pane.Nobody got fooled by our windows. I'm looking forward to next year's visit.
3 comments:
Nice post, nice photo (thanks, Flickr), but more importantly, you've read Pale Fire? I assume, like me, it was under torture during college days. :)
.. Would be interested in a reciprocal blog link. Let me know.
Last week, we had yellow finches which we never had before. And new this week a couple of Rose-Breasted Grosbeaks showed up. Sweet!
Sorry for the delay, folks. It's been a busy few weeks.
Waldo O: I actually read Pale Fire of my own volition, but some 5 years after I graduated from college with a degree in English. (yes, one of those) Not sure what I would have made of it as an undergrad, but I have to say I loved it and plan to re-read it someday soon.
Cool blog, btw, watch for a link soon.
Spyder: Yellow finches? You lucky dog.
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