I got a few inches of snow last night and this morning it was covered with a sheet of sleet. Katie does not like this because when she takes a step her foot breaks through the thin layer of sleet and into the snow below that. She walks through it very carefully.
Outside my kitchen window is a tree (maybe a big shrub) with green leaves and bunches of red berries. There were hundreds of birds checking it out today. These birds were really pretty with black masks, bright yellow trim on their tails, and bright red spots on their wings. I’m pretty sure they are cedar waxwings after looking them up in my bird guide. You can see in the picture why they are called waxwings: it looks like their tails and wings are dipped in melted crayons. I’m not so sure about the tree, but I’m thinking it could be a cotoneaster. There was also one robin trying to keep all of the waxwings away from his tree, but he didn’t seem to be eating very fast. Better just to eat.
Here is another one a couple of years later:
That’s a great shot. The one on the right looks painted in! I wonder if all the red berries show up better to birds when the ground is covered in white.
They move very quickly, so I took dozens of pictures and this one seemed to be the best at showing the detail of the markings. After reading about them, they love eating berries and they travel in big groups, and that’s what they were doing today.
So pretty. I hope they didn’t freeze. Pretty little birdies.
I made that picture my wallpaper.
That picture looks like a painting in a gallery. It’s just beautiful.
A photoshop effect made this photo even look more like a painting.
The cedar waxwings were back today. More than half of the berries are gone already, so they must have struck early. I added a picture to the main post.