Cedar Waxwings: Usually I’m not thrilled when huge flocks of birds descend on the yard, displacing our “regulars” from feeders and birdbaths. But when fifty-six (at least!) Cedar Waxwings visited, I was happily excited. Unlike big flocks of Common Grackles, European Starlings and Brown-Headed Cowbirds, this crowd was not aggressive towards the other birds and didn’t displace them. They didn’t want anything from the feeders after all. They didn’t mess with the other birds and the other birds didn’t mess with them. They were just there to drink.
Mallard Pair at Buddy Attick Lake (Nancie Waterman)
If pressed, I would say that I am an intermediate birder. I can successfully identify the common birds, as well as most of the regular migrants and less common birds, that might wander through my area. I’ve also seen some less common and rare birds, around here and in other places, that I would recognize again. Basically, when it comes to identifying birds, I know enough to be dangerous, not in a lethal kind of way, but in that way of assuming I know something that can lead me wrong. Sometimes you just don’t know what you don’t know. And that is where you make mistakes . . .
While this winter’s White-Throated Sparrows and Dark-Eyed Juncos will soon be leaving us to migrate up to Canada where they breed, Chipping Sparrows are now returning to Maryland and other parts of the US and Canada from their winter spent in the south.
The first Chipping Sparrow of the spring showed up in our yard this week. These tiny little guys are definitely welcomed back!
