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November 17, 1988 - Annual Battle for the Berries Is OnAnnual Battle Paul for the Berries Is On h The other day Barbara came back from a walk to the beach all excited about seeing a flock of cedar waxwings feeding in a group of cedars along the roadside. The cedar waxwing is a bird we don't see too often here on the East End, though it is common throughout most of the state. It is one of our latest nesters for it enjoys berries and therefore waits until they become ripe to raise and feed its young. It's probably one of the trimmest birds you'll ever see. Cedar waxwings look to me as if they were just freshly painted, with a sharp crest on the head and brush of yellow across the tail. The body, half the size of a robin, is an overall brownish color with pale creamy - yellow underparts. Once you see this handsome berry -eater you'll never forget it. As mentioned above, they are noted for enjoying any sort of fruit they can get down their throat. The grey -blue cedar berries were what they were after when Barbara saw them. The next day they were close to the house and again Barbara's sharp eyes and keen hearing found them in a vacant overgrown lot just off the pasture. Seems about 20 years ago a man started to build a house there. He had the foun- dation done and while someone was backfilling it caved in. Evidently he was disgusted, and rather than reconstruct he merely bulldozed the whole thing in and covered it over. Today the lot has been overtaken by wild blackberry, catbrier, multiflora rose and a host of weedy shrubs that attract a wide variety of wildlife. It didn't take the waxwings long to find out that here was lunch and plenty of it. I counted over 50 in this one location and know there must have been many more up the road, for I could see them flying back and forth in the trees. Nature's Acrobats It was fascinating to see them feeding. Sometimes they'd be completely upside- down reaching for a berry way out on the very end of the stem. Some would beat their wings like giant hummingbirds and literally stand in midair trying to grasp a glistening berry. Nearby were migrating robins who wanted to get their share of the berries before they were all gone. Being much bigger birds, the robins had to stay back where the branches were heavier, while the waxwings performed a wide array of balancing acts out on the springy stems where the remaining berries were. Both these birds, like many others, rely on an oasis of food like this on their way south. It's like going on a long car trip and stopping for lunch along the way. Without these refueling stops, migrating birds would have a tough time, proof that overgrown lots or empty fields are more valuable than most of us expect. Of course, a seed's being passed through the bird's digestive system then dropped along the migra- tion route is one of nature's principal ways of distributing seeds into new lo- cations. We find a few cedar waxwings, as well as a few robins, staying here in the north all winter but the majority head south, some going as far as South America. We usually get a few reported on our Christmas bird counts that have been found in the vicinity of wintering berries. Waxwings and Flycatchers One of the nice things about spotting waxwings is that they are usually very tame. One can walk right up to them. This is particularly true if they are feed- ing. They seem more interested in gob - bling down berry after berry than taking notice of you. During the summer when berries haven't matured as yet, waxwings enjoy an insect diet and are often seen mimicking the flycatcher technique of catching insects on the wing. rears ago, when canoeing down the Peconic River, we watched them fly out over the river from their high perch above the woods to snatch a flying in- sect and return. The waxwing has a dis- ' tinct flight pattern. All these various clues of identification make birding so interesting. Here we have a bird with a long list of clues: loves to eat berries, is sleek, dons a crest, has a distinctive flight pattern, sometimes mimics a fly- catcher, and has an extremely high - pitched call. Put them all together and you've got one of nature's most hand- some birds, the cedar waxwing. Besides the two migrants in the berry patch there was a lone mockingbird go- ing crazy trying to chase all those out- siders from his favorite feeding ground. A mockingbird is very territorial and will chase any bird in its favorite berry patch. "Mockers" often stay all winter because they can find good supplies of berries and feed on them through those cold and often lean days winter deals to wildlife. Winged Warfare I imagine this particular mocker thought he had a corner on this treasure house of berries until he was invaded by the outsiders. He tried his best to chase them out. He would scold and fly in, chasing one bird and then another, but as fast as he drove one out, another dropped in to take its place. He was having a terrible time with these waxwings and robins devouring his winter supply of food; I think the only thing that saved him was the ending of the day. Let's hope some berries were left. All this goes to show how an inva- sion of "blackbirds" on someone's corn or grapes or berries can have a devastat- ing effect on the crop. As I watched I could see one berry after another being plucked and put into what seemed an endless pit. Yet thank goodness for these overgrown fields and vacant lots and the open spaces that are still left around, for as time goes on I'm afraid these, too, will turn into homesteads with manicured lawns, blacktop drive- ways and plastic birds. Suffolk Times /November 17, 1988 Focus on Nature Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh CEDAR WAXWING —A handsome cedar waxwing stops off at an overgrown lot to fill up on berries on its journey south.