Thursday, December 18, 2014

December 17 Cedar Waxwing Dinner Buffet


In Paunack Park along the Yahara River as it exits Lake Monona, I stopped my bike to watch a flock of at least a dozen cedar waxwings eating buckthorn berries. Cedar waxwings (bombycilla cedrorum) are year round residents in Madison and almost always seen in flocks unless they are nesting. They love fruit and will eat it almost exclusively from now until spring. The spread of buckthorn and honeysuckle is helping waxwing populations and they, in turn, are helping those plants by eating their fruits and spreading the seeds.

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