senoritafish | Migrants... (Reply)

Not only have I been constantly hearing cedar waxwings in the neighborhood lately, the kingbirds are back, although I haven't determined whether they're Westerns or Tropicals. I hear the waxwings more often than I see them, with their very high-pitched piping calls, while the kingbirds seem to be using the Moreton Bay fig in front of our house as a food source. It's dropping figs all over again, and several afternoons lately when I've parked after coming home from work, I watch the kingbirds flying in and out of tree. They flutter out of the leaves with a large object (well large compared to them) in their beaks, which they choke down while perched on the lightpost wires. It takes them some effort; I don't think the fig tree is infested with insects that big, and it looks about the diameter of one of my fingernails, i.e. about the size of a fig. Hmm, and I'd thought they ate mostly insects. I'm glad some wildlife is getting some use out of the tree.

I've also seen the Say's phoebe hanging around the office, well, the fence next to the strawberry field adjacent to the office. For a moment I thought it was another kingbird, but a little too small, and the top of its breast was grey, then orangeish farther down, not yellow.