Milkshakes may or may not bring the boys to your yard, but when it comes to birds, it ain’t the milkshake. It’s my berries.
First off, I have no new species to report for my back yard bird list for this week. It’s not that there were not birds. There were plenty of birds. Just no new species to report.
The cardinals continue to make regular appearances. I’m hoping there might be a juvenile or two showing up soon. There has been no shortage of adult cardinals, so I’m hoping they are making more.
There was also a flock of cedar waxwings that have been showing up. By flock, I mean around twenty or so. That’s a lot of cedar waxwings in a fairly small area. Why were all the cedar waxwings flocking to my yard? That took a bit of detective work.
Near my backyard are a couple pine trees that are in the process of being choked by some sort of ivy. I’m not sure where it came from, but someone planted it many years ago. The ivy has grown up and around the pine trees and seems quite happy there. Happy enough that it seems to be producing some sort of little berry.
Honestly, I had never even noticed the berries until now. And it was the abundance of cedar waxwings that made me notice. At first I thought maybe they were eating bugs of some type, so I was cheering them on. The more bugs something else eats, the fewer that are trying to eat me is generally the way I look at it. But after spending some time sipping my morning coffee and watching the birds, I realized they were pulling at the ivy. They were eating the little berries off the ivy.
In fact, there are very few berries left on the ivy. And the flock has since moved on. I’m still not sure what those berries are, or what type of ivy is climbing the nearby trees. But the birds like it. Or at least the berries.
