Have berries they will come…robins, mockingbirds and waxwings that is
So we have this Youpon Holly tree in our backyard that brings some amazing guests every year!! The bright red berries are snacked on throughout the year by our smart yet annoying mockingbird friend. There are hundreds of thousand berries on the tree and yet he will let no other bird share in the bounty that is until January of every year…
I knew it would happen soon but every year I can’t remember exactly when it will happen.
My mom and I were walking in a nearby neighborhood park and the trees were absolutely alive with sound. We spent most of our walk looking up- needless to say we needed a good chiropractic visit after we were done =) Flickers, redheaded woodpeckers, sparrows, chickadess and birds we couldn’t identify(which was very bothersome) We watched the robins scurry about yanking those worms right out of Texas clay!! The highlight of our walk was when we realized the waxwings were here!!! They are beautifully sleek such a mysterious looking bird. We spied only a handful but I knew that soon we would have visitors to our backyard =) Jokingly I told the waxwings we had a beautiful berry tree exploding with berries and they were welcome at our home.
2 days later…
I smile as I write this. I actually knew they were here by the WHUMP on my window. There are only 2 birds that do that!! Flocking waxwings and barrelling robins. Sure enough my large leafless hackberry tree had 10-20 waxwings perched ready to devour the berries. They hadn’t come alone. Perched in the tree with them were 15-20 robins too. They were all waiting though what was the holdup? Normally they converge on the tree like hungry maniacs sucking down the hundreds of thousands of berries in under 10 minutes but not today. I look in the holly tree and sure enough our 1 blantanly annoying mockingbird is doing his best at keeping those 40+ birds at bay. He told each of them firmly it was his tree and they weren’t invited to visit.
Those berries are all gone now. Despite his best efforts the robins and waxwings eventually picked them all off.
