While in Stillwater, Oklahoma in April (for the Stillwater Art Festival), I decided to stay an extra evening and drive back the day after the show was over (hoping to avoid some of the nasty weather we had been experiencing over the weekend). After getting my luggage packed and just hanging around the motel, I looked out the window and saw a large flock of birds in a small tree, just outside the window. At first, it looked like a group of large sparrows. But upon closer inspection, I saw that they were one of my favorite birds … the Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). I grabbed my camera out of the photo backpack and made my way to the motel’s back door. I could then tell that this was a huge flock … maybe as many as 50 birds!
Here are a few images I captured of the Cedar Waxwings as they foraged in the trees around the motel:
At one point, a smaller group let me get pretty close to them:
A while later, part of the flock flew to the front of the motel and perched in a larger tree there:
I’ve been fortunate to see this bird around my home a few times, but having a couple of hours with them was really a nice ending to a great weekend show!
Photographic Equipment Used:
- Canon 7D body
- Canon EF 100-400mm, f/4.5-f/5.6 IS lens, shot at 375mm to 400mm
- Handheld from vehicle window, with IS “On”
- ISO 500
- Aperture f/8 to f/11
- Shutter 1/200 sec. to 1/320 sec.