Cedar Waxwing  -  To hear their distinctive song, click here.  Cedar Waxwing photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

So, where to begin.  Sunday, while sitting at my computer working, I heard the very distinctive sounds of the Cedar Waxwing coming from outside my door. I paused my work, listened for a moment, and then without much thought returned to work. What seemed like a few minutes went by and the sound grew increasingly louder. This sparked my curiosity and so I went outside, camera in hand. Of course opening my door scattered the large flock of birds removing any chance to take photographs of them.  I decided that as long as I was outside, I may as well take my “Fig and Flower” photos for the day. When I walked across my porch to take photos of the fig tree, my mouth dropped in disbelief. The Cedar Waxwings had completely plundered my beloved fig tree. Every single fig one-half inch in size or smaller was gone – what would have been the entire second crop of figs – eaten.

I admit to limited knowledge of Cedar Waxwings, though I do know that they are fruitarian in the extreme. Since I have lived in the Oakland area, I have had the occasional happiness of spotting a single Cedar Waxwing or two but this was the first year that I have seen them in large flocks here. The first flock sighting being in my own yard nearly a month ago as they picked clean the berries from a very large ornamental tree. I was so very excited to see them at that time; it never occurred to me that they would one-day return to lunch on my figs.