Almost ready for harvest

I was cleaning windows in our hallway and happened to see that a small flock of waxwings were poking around in the crabapple tree


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Not quite ready yet, surprised they're showing up this early; the crop doesn't usually ripen until January and we've only had a few good frosts so far this fall but we had an odd summer so maybe they'll be early. When it's time, the tree will be full of birds - waxwings, starlings, robins and a very frustrated mockingbird who tries to keep it all to himself.


Regards,
Scott

I take it you are back in VA. The Waxwings must be working their way south, we don't usually see any of them until around Feb. or March. I think they by-passed us this year. My poor crabapple tree has never had such a crop as that, probably because it doesn't get enough sunlight due to the Leland Cypress my neighbor planted on the property line.

Yep, back in VA 'til Feb. I really need to thin out the tree but I hate to deprive the birds of the apples; rock meet hard place, as it were.

Regards,
Scott

We get monster flocks of bohemian waxwings here in the elderberries, mountain ash, bird cherries, and crabapples... Many hundreds at a time. Have not seen a cedar waxwing in many years. It is below zero right now so I expect they will start showing any time...

Art, Please excuse my ignorance in Alaskan wildlife habits, but you are expecting bohemian waxwings to show up in the winter in Alaska?

I had a very large flock of them here in East Tennessee about a month or so ago eating the berries off the Privet bushes that grow all along my fence line.