James Etheridge

As most of you know, I am a bird nerd. Yesterday morning Jackie called to me in the studio and said, “You need to come see this. There’s a huge flock of birds on the birdbath in the middle of the yard.” We went to the kitchen window and there were at least twenty birds in the birdbath. At first we couldn’t really tell what type of birds they were, but then I noticed the gray streak down the back, the light brown swept-back crest of the head and the unmistakable black mask around the eyes. “Those are cedar waxwings,” I said. “There’s more of them in the trees,” said Jackie. “See them on the limbs right there?” she said. Sure enough, more of the flock was in one of the trees and they kept flying back and forth from the bath to the trees. I pulled out our National Geographic bird guide and looked them up. “They’re definitely waxwings,” I said, showing her the picture. There was no water in the bath and she said, “I wonder what they’re eating?” “I’m sure there’s plenty of good things within all those leaves in there,” I said. We stood and watched them for a few more minutes and then suddenly, as if by cue, they were gone both from the bath and the tree. “Wow, that was really cool,” I said. “Thanks, honey, for calling me to see. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen waxwings. That made my day.”

It had indeed been quite a while since I’d seen cedar waxwings. They are migratory birds, sleek and beautiful, whose year-round habitat is mostly in the northeast and Midwest. They are generally seen in Georgia this time of year, January and February. Other than the waxwings, there are many species of birds passing through right now. Whippoorwills, sparrows, blue and red-breasted grosbeaks and purple martins, to name a few, will start coming into Georgia.  Another one to keep an eye out for is the brown-headed nuthatch (pictured here).
Their year-round habitat is here in the southeast, although they are not as common as their relative, the white-breasted nuthatch.And, of course everyone’s favorite, the ruby-throated hummingbird will be arriving soon. Jackie read last week that they have started their annual trek from Central America, so by the end of March they will be here.

Later in the afternoon, I was out in the backyard picking up sticks and doing my daily bird feeder filling. So far this year, the feathered little piglets have been going through seed at a record pace, emptying two feeders a day. I decided to check out the birdbath and see what the waxwings had been dining on. Amongst the leaves were hundreds of acorn caps and shells from peanuts I had put out a month or so ago on advice from my buddy Tim, hoping to attract blue jays. No blue jays showed up, but the waxwings sure did chow down on them. So I’ll be heading back to Ingles for another bag of peanuts, hoping to lure in more of them before they head out of town. If not, they’ll be there for the woodpeckers, jays and nuthatches. Just not the squirrels.