Beautiful photo! The bohemian waxwings come to my mountain ash tree every year to devour all the frozen berries.... usually in the coldest day in Feb. just so that I have to freeze my fingers off to take pictures - ha ha! However.... this year - they didn't come at all !!!! First time.... I've seen their flocks all around the city and tried to tell them to come to MY tree but they wouldn't listen. This one, in a crabapple tree.... did they eat those crabapples?? I have the same kind of tree in my back yard, but they have never bothered with them, though I wish they would!! Joanne

Thanks, Joanne. :o) For some reason, we've had waxwings visiting for a longer period than in previous years. Usually they come 3 or 4 times in large flocks betwen January and end-of-Feb. - early March. This year they arrived in January as usual and are still around (though in smaller flocks of 20 - 30 rather than in the hundreds). They seem to really like crabapples. As I mentioned in a posting several weeks ago, they have a definite preference: they strip the tree with the sweeter crabapple first, then, on subsequent visits, move to the trees with the less sweet ones (ie. the flowering crabs). We love watching and listening to them and there's always great excitement and much scurrying around for cameras when they swoop into our yard! :o) :o)

Ah..... well that would make sense - I've never tasted one of my crabapples but it's definetly flowering so maybe it's extra-sour... not even the robins eat them in the spring! Funny thing too.... I have 2 mountain ash trees in my front yard - I don't know about tree types, but one has pale orange berries, and one has bright red berries. The waxwings always eat the pale orange berries first - sometimes leaving the red ones all-together. Joanne