Howdy everyone! As noted in my last post, I am officially home from our excursion through the West. There have been moments of pure happiness throughout my life, beating our competitors in the solid modeling innovation realm, passing my 9 hour multi-discipline second degree black belt certifications, crossing the 50 mile finish line for the first time and more recently, getting a good nights sleep in my own bed after two months of living in a tin can – that was aided by a late night run I was able to get in before that to jump start the humidity conditioning. Unfortunately, now having to harvest my yard, get the woods beat back into submission and deal with every critter in the neighborhood that decided to take advantage of my absence sigh. While I deal with the homestead entropy, Brad is going to step in to keep you entertained with another of their adventures from the absolute opposite direction from our recent travels. This also gives my brother Ron some extra time to work on a video I think you are going to like. I would like to thank you folks for kindly dropping in, set a spell, take your shoes off, you all come back now (link here).
Take it away Brad…
This is the second time I have tried to write this story. The first time, as brilliant as it was, seemed to disappear when my PC restarted itself during a mandatory update and set my story back to a nearly blank document that was several days old, even after being saved multiple times in the meantime. I checked the backups and they only had the version from the prior days before I did very much writing. I have auto-save turned on, but there was some sort of kerfuffle between my PC and my backup software. Not sure Windows 11 is being my friend at the moment. I’ll try to recreate the facts as best as I can remember them. Trust me, the first version was a brilliant rendition of our visit, truly Pulitzer worthy. Hehehe
Jan and I were on one of our annual trips to escape a week of February weather in Illinois. We like the Hilton Head area in South Carolina that time of year. Temperatures along the Atlantic Ocean are just enough warmer that we don’t need parkas, but not so warm we need short sleeves and sunscreen all the time. There seems to be a sweet spot right before the Spring Break throngs descend on the area and precisely when the hotels are deeply discounted. Yet not so early that state parks and activities aren’t available. We still see gators all over, but they haven’t really warmed up for summer levels of activity, thankfully. And I think I’ve finally figured out most of the roads we use and which traffic lane to use in the round-abouts. This is certainly not meant to be an advertisement, but if someone from the Hilton Head Bureau of tourism wants to sponsor future trips . . . just sayin’.
One of our favorite gems to visit is Wigeon Point Preserve, about 30 minutes away from Hilton Head towards Port Royal. I think Ted Jennings may have guided us to this location in the past, thanks Ted. It can be tricky to find while driving as there is precious little signage, and no separate right turn lane. The preserve is on a bend in the road between bridges spanning two large marshy areas. At the risk of making the preserve much more popular, we are usually the only people there.
Remembering that the park entrance sneaks up quickly at highway speeds, I slowed down and signaled to make the turn into the parking lot. This time, there was just one other car in the lot, but they were already headed to the trails. The couple was walking a new puppy who was rather excited to be in the middle of nature. We could hear the puppy proclaiming its joy as it romped along the trails. When we couldn’t hear the puppy, we could track its progress by the clouds of birds flying up from the trees wherever it went. At this point, we realized there would be no birds to photograph unless we waited several minutes for them to return to their perches. Or took a different path through the preserve, which is precisely what we did. If the crowds go left, go to the right, or vice versa. This strategy has served us well at various Disney parks.
Imagine you just heard an extremely high pitched twill, the calling card of today’s featured feathered friend. “Wax on” the jump button to learn more about this rather dapper find.
Once the cameras were assembled, Jan and I headed into the preserve. OK, in reality, Jan was already well down the path by the time I had my camera ready and the rental car locked up. A few feet past the first viewing platform, there is a small bridge just before the trail splits left or right. Knowing the puppy had headed to the left (based on the clouds of birds flying away), Jan and I made the turn to the right. Something in the Cabbage Palmetto tree (or Sabal palmetto if you prefer) at the trail split caught our attention and made the tree look like it was moving.
The tree wasn’t really moving; it was swamped with birds eating the bounty of cabbage berries available. The birds were Cedar Waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum). We have Cedar Waxwings at home, so this bird is not a +1 for us. Well, actually it is if you can only count birds when they are alive. All I ever see are the ones that have tried to pass through the basketball backboard on our driveway, about one per year. It’s the only bird species near us that hasn’t figured out how to fly around the glass backboard.
I stopped for a moment to enjoy the scene while not looking through the camera viewfinder. All too often, all of my memories come through the viewfinder. I find it a nice change to actually look at the scene to soak it in. There was a faint hum of traffic on the highway behind us, even though it was a couple hundred yards away. There was also a very slight breeze in the air. A light overcast bathed the scene in an even light. And I hear Jan’s camera clicking away. Back to reality and the story.
The Cedars were swallowing the cabbage berries whole. I thought maybe they would crunch them first, but no. Technically, cabbage berries are seeds with a thin sweet fleshy covering similar to the wild cherries in my back yard, or what my father-in-law calls “choke cherries”. I wonder how many cabbage berries a Cedar Waxwing can hold. This question is sort of along the lines of how many swallows does it take to carry a coconut, regardless if they grip it by the husk or not. Can an African swallow carry more than a European swallow…? (Does that qualify for bonus points Brian? – yes, but that was subtle ha!) I suppressed a smile and started taking more photos.
Never having seen a Cedar Waxwing alive before, I had a moment of doubt if it might, indeed, be a Bohemian Waxwing. Let’s compare. At first glance they look similar, but there are a few key differences in color. The first differences are the breast and under tail colors. Cedars have white under-tail feathers while the Bohemian has cinnamon or rusty colored feathers. Belly feather color is another strong indicator. Cedars have pale yellow belly feathers while Bohemians have grey feathers. Thankfully, with these indicators you don’t need the two side by side.
Their overall body color is also helpful, but in low light may be a bit tougher. Cedars – brownish, Bohemian – greyish. Their “masks” are a bit different, too. Cedars have a slightly wider white trim around their mask as compared with the Bohemian frugal white outline. They both have bright yellow tips on their tails and red highlights on their wings. Bohemians are ever so slightly larger and rounder, but unless they are side by side, size might not help differentiate. Their northern territories overlap by just a smidgen, but their ranges do not overlap at all in South Carolina so ID wasn’t much of a problem, even for me.
Though I didn’t see any tiny red Solo cups around, I could imagine a bit of Berry-Pong happening between these two birds.
Back to one of my original questions: How many cabbage berries can a Cedar Waxwing eat? I don’t know. A lot is the correct answer. The group of Waxwings we found stripped this tree bare in a few minutes. There may have been a dozen birds and a couple hundred berries. If I divide an estimated 200 berries by 12 birds I get just over 16 cabbage berries per bird. I’d hate to have my car nearby when they have completely digested their buffet. Wigeon Point Preserve contains a mix of pine-hardwood and maritime forest trees, meaning pines, oaks and palms. There are a fair amount of Cabbage Palm trees nearby that attracted the “ear-full” of waxwings we were seeing. If a group of Waxwings are causing a ruckus and chattering they are called an “ear-full”. If the waxwings are sitting around quietly looking rather stately, they are referred to as a “museum”.
Eating that many berries must impact a bird’s flight profile and aerodynamics. This normally svelte Waxwing appeared to have eaten a few too many berries, making it look rather large and lumpy. It must have been working on a bit of digestion before taking off again. I can imagine the discussion that was going on with the other birds nearby, paraphrased of course.
Bird 1 – And finally, a mint?
Bird 2 – I couldn’t eat another bite. Bugger off.
Bird 1 – Oh, but it’s wafer-thin monsieur.
Bird 3 hurries over with a small silver tray
Bird 2 – Better bring me a bucket.
That was our signal to keep things moving by continuing our walk around the preserve.
Thank you for reading. If you want to see more Cedar Waxwing photos, please visit here.
Credits:
Thanks again to Jan for proofreading and editing. Thanks to Jan for many of the photos in this story.
Wildlife Intrigued 
I love the colors and the mask on the Cedar Waxwing! Beautiful birds. Speaking only for myself, a dog running loose and scaring up the birds would tick me off. But, I find dogs very annoying these days even though I grew up with them. Your humidity, keep it! It’s about 12% here with 110 today. Nice! ❤️😎🌴🌞
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Thanks John. We met the puppy in question about halfway through the preserve. He was only a few months old and fairly well behaved, but vocal. Today we have low- to mid-90’s and high humidity. Sort of looking forward to the dry heat in Vegas in November.
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The heat is gone by then, just cool weather.
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If you like mountain hiking, we have some new places to bird when you make it out there.
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I can tell you without hesitation the heat in Vegas was far more bearable than hear right now even with those higher temps out there…although you have all those rocks that warm up during the day that take longer to cool off at night versus here, but I would pass up this humidity any day ha.
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You are wise! This is a huge reason why I stayed here after the divorce in 2016. Just 95-99 today, 106 yesterday and at some point we will see 115 this summer. I will be in Michigan for a week soon and the humidity will cause havoc for me. I have to stay indoors a lot in the AC to survive! 😂🫠
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The worst conditions we have experienced in Vegas was the time it reached 114 – literally popped the door panels off our Cherokee at the time – quite the surprise ha. Brace yourself for Michigan, smart move to stay in the AC, you don’t want to stress the body any more than you have to. Safe travels and hopefully the Canada fires will subside by then.
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Wow, door panels inside? Never seen that happen. I hope the smoke goes away for everyone’s sake. Being on the boat may help when we go out, maybe. I hope! I’m getting older so I need to be careful of the humidity, less of a problem here. 35% humidity just now because of monsoonal rain fairly close by and overcast. Never rains here though…
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First time we have seen that happen as well..and never since. The smoke seems to be dissipating with some assist from the recent rains – got a demeaning eye from my doctor when I admitted I was running in those conditions – I just told him I gotta be me hehehe. Our services can be requested if you want it to rain – for some reason we have a knack of bringing rain with us whenever we go on vacation, I think we are cursed – this includes being snowed on while in Vegas over a New Year’s trip we took out there some time back. Like Tennessee, when there is ANYTHING white on the roads out there, stay off them, they have no idea how to drive in the slick stuff ha. Take care.
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Excellent photos.
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Thank you very much. The birds did all the work by eating and posing. I’m glad we were able to capture them as we did.
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These are all stunning photos of the beautiful Cedar Waxwings! I remember being so struck by their sleek, colorful plumage the first time I learned about them when I lived in upstate New York. Fellow birders have spotted them here in southeast Florida during the winter, but I have never seen one here.
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Thank you for your kind words. Hang around the Cabbage Palms and I’m sure you will find them feasting one day.
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I always find it a little amusing that Cedar Waxwings always look perfectly coiffed. Now a “hair (feather) out of place. Stand-ins for Zoot Suiters and Beboppers.
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Yes Jerry, they always do look well put together, at least the one time we’ve seen them.
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Wow, you hit the jackpot pot with them. I’ve never had any luck with small birds at all there. I admit to not stopping there for a long time. Once the Eagles stopped nesting there all I ever managed were bug bites.
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Ted, we avoided bug bites that day, maybe the stiff breeze helped. Usually I’m a mosquito magnet even with deep woods products on (a story for another time). I was very happy they held still long enough to get these photos since we rarely see them otherwise. Thanks again for the referral to preserve.
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It’s a great area.
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Kind of like being “Back in Black”, finishing that road trip. Now that you’ve hit the sack to rack up a few winks, you can face the deluge of responsibilities that have been growing up and out of control while you’ve been gone.
Those waxwings look like a sassy bunch of birds.
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They certainly were Tim. I was glad to see the puppy running around earlier didn’t deter their appetites in the slightest.
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Let’s just say I was none too pleased when we got home and saw the state of the yard – fired the lawn service immediately and now just about got it back to snuff so I can start dealing with my 47 foot bridge that washed out due to the heavy rains we had while we were away – no rest for the wicked as they say ha.
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You have a washed-out 47-foot bridge? That sounds like a lot of work.
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I do. Just made it down there today to assess the damage (had to tame the jungle conditions of the trails first). Complete loss, 4 of the 8 6′ cement casings for the footings have been pulled completely out of the ground and the bridge itself has been completely tossed to one side of the stream, ripped from the casing on the far side – if it wasn’t for having the bridge tied to a massive hedge tree that I left on from the build phase it would probably be halfway to the Illinois River by now. Going to be a really busy summer for me.
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That’s a sorry state of being. Was the bridge part of the Haunt Trail?
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It was not, we try to keep the guests away from the large waterway through the property for safety reasons – don’t need any water trolls stealing our guests. A smaller bridge that is used on the trail to get over a gully from the ridge-line did get washed away as well, but I should be able to get that put back in place – many years ago I chained it to a large nearby tree – the chain has since grown into the tree, but until that tree goes down I know that smaller bridge will not be going down to the big stream and on to the Illinois River!
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Mother nature keeps you busy.
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These are wonderful photos; it is total fun to see so many together, in all different poses, so true to life. The fact that they cleaned those palms out in a matter of minutes doesn’t bode well for being able to go back and see them again. I’ve noticed that here, as well; take lots of photos when you first see them, because they likely won’t be there the next day.
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Thank you. Very true, they might not have even been there when we finished the wildlife loop based on how fast the berries were disappearing. I suppose there were more on the preserve, but I don’t see how they could have eaten anymore berries for a little while. As Brian always tells me, “get one in the tin, then go for the ID or money shots.” Certainly glad we kept firing away when we saw these waxwings. Thanks for stopping by, really appreciate it.
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Waxwings must be among the most photogenic birds out there, as your excellent photos prove.
I had never considered how many berries a single waxwing can eat, but now my interest has been piqued. You evoked the image of one plump, ripe berry going in the beak, and the remnants coming out the opposite end. In that case, they could just keep gobbling . . .
The only detail that made me sad was the image of waxwings hitting your basketball backboard. Do you think putting some strips of duct tape or window stickers on there might save some lives? I’m sure they make them in the shape of basketballs.
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Hi Tanja. Our backboard has all sort of decals on it, it’s transparent, but not even close to being a window. We haven’t seen one for a couple of years, maybe they’ve finally learned from their brethren to fly around it. 🙂 Please don’t take my observations as scientifically accurate either. Fun yes, accurate, well . . . I suppose I could get a grant somewhere to find out just how many berries a waxwing can hold. Thanks for stopping by. Glad you are blogging again.
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I didn’t mean for my suggestion to be critical! I should have added that I suspected you had already tried to keep the birds away from the backboard. Let’s hope for no more collisions.
I wonder if some graduate student has already written a thesis on the burning question in question. If not, you could volunteer. It would be a fun study to conduct. 🙂
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Not taken that way at all. Just curious that the waxwings are the only ones that don’t seem to be able to navigate around the big piece of colorful glass. Maybe one too many berries?
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That could explain it. Especially after they have started to ferment! We have actually seen inebriated waxwings!
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All grants must be shared with the rest of us hehehehe!
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