The mulberries are ripening...

...so here come the Cedar Waxwings!

Cedar Waxwings perch in the big mulberry tree in our backyard.

Every year late in May and early in June, flocks of Cedar Waxwings swoop into our backyard to raid the mulberry trees, gobbling up the juiciest berries as they ripen on the branches. This Saturday as we sat down to dinner on the deck, a large flock arrived in a flurry of excitement and anticipation. Singing their beautiful high-pitched tseeee tsee tseeeee song while on the wing, we heard them coming before we saw them, and then what a free-for-all! The sleek, elegant birds abandoned their usual aplomb and immediately tucked into the berries, devouring anything plump and juicy in sight, but it didn't stop there, they created a commotion by singing to each other, cuddling up along branches, hopping from here to there, then hopping back. It wasn't a complete feeding frenzy, but more like a social gathering where they were all saying things like, "Over here, these are the ripest berries," "No...no...don't listen to him, over here, sample these."  It went on and on until all the sweet, dark berries were gone, and only the underripe, hard berries remained. Then off to the next tree they flew!

Short and sweet 
The mulberry season is short and sweet, so the waxwings don't stick around in our backyard, but later in the summer and in the early fall, pokeweed berries lure the Cedar Waxwings back. Click here for an earlier post on pokeweed berries and Cedar Waxwings in our backyard.

To attract Cedar Waxwings to your yard, let the pokeweed run wild...

The dark purple-blue berries of Common Pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) are irresistible to Cedar Waxwings. So much so that I don't even have to look out the window to know when they start to ripen. As soon as I hear the high-pitched, magical chittering of a flock of Cedar Waxwings in our backyard, I know the pokeberries are in season...

Common Pokeberries are ready for plucking and eating (by birds only; pokeweed berries are poisonous and can make humans sick). As soon as the berries are ripe, Cedar Waxwings descend and start feasting.  

These photos are from August 5 when most of the berries were not yet ripe. It was the beginning of their fruiting season, but it didn't stop the Cedar Waxwings from moving in. They knew exactly where every ripe berry was and wasted no time taking advantage of the nutritious summer treat. Now, the established plants are mostly picked over, but younger plants growing beside their elders are dripping with the dark, plump berries. In the wild, pokeweed plants look common, but in the suburbs, they look intensely exotic. Their cranberry red stems and racemes create an exciting backdrop to the dark blue fruit, and as autumn progresses, the colors only intensify. Our first stand of pokeweed started as a volunteer in 2008. At first I didn't know what it was, so I just let it grow, and did it ever grow. It grew tall and wide and arching, and soon it was dripping with chartreuse berries, but when they started to ripen, the fun really began. The first birds to eat the dark berries were robins, then came catbirds, and finally Cedar Waxwings. Over the years the catbirds still come, and the robins do too, but the Cedar Waxwings are the biggest consumer. I have a lot of pokeweed plants scattered around my yard, so I hear their chittery, magical sounds all summer.

A Cedar Waxwing looks for ripe berries. (There are two birds in this photo...can you see the second bird at the bottom near the right.) These two birds are part of a flock of 6 birds that regularly forage in our backyard. Earlier in the season, they feasted on mulberries from our 6 mulberry trees. 

A Cedar Waxwing swallows a pokeweed berry whole. You can see the bird's gular pouch distending to hold the berry (click here to learn more about gular pouches). 

If Thoreau liked pokeweed...
...it has to be good, right? I was reading "The Book of Field and Roadside; Open-country Weeds, Trees, and Wildflowers of Eastern North American," by John Eastman, and came across a reference to Thoreau where he wrote, "its stems are more beautiful than most flowers," which is true. You can't walk past the plant without taking a second look. I wanted to see what else Thoreau said about pokeweed, so I looked up the passage and found it in "The Writings of Henry Davide Thoreau, Volume 10," page 393. Click here for the online link to the free ebook. He goes on to describe them in detail as only Thoreau can, ending with "It is a royal plant. I could spend the evening of the year musing amid the poke stems."  

Pokeweed has a wide spreading habit. This is just one plant (and it's only half of it!). Pokeweed grows 4-10 feet tall, and its berries can remain viable for 40 years. 

Pretty to look at, but leave the berries for the birds (all parts of a pokeweed plant are toxic to humans). 

Pokeweed is a poisonous plant...
If you have children, pokeweed might not be a good plant for your yard. The roots are the most poisonous, followed by the leaves and stems, and then the berries. Children can be sickened by eating as few as 10 berries. Babies are especially vulnerable to the toxins and can die after eating only a few berries. The roots are deadly, and you should wear gloves if pulling the plant while it's alive (the juices can harm the skin). To learn more about pokeweed, click here for The Ohio State University's "Ohio Perennial and Biennial Weed Guide."

Mulberries attract Cedar Waxwings too...
In late May and Early June the mulberries in our yard start to ripen, and they are the first berries to welcome back the waxwings, but their season is short, and by July, they are gone, which makes pokeweed so perfect. It lures the Cedar Waxwings back in, and we get to listen to them all the way through the end of summer and early autumn.

A Cedar Waxwing sits in one of our mulberry trees. He's not looking for fruit in the tree. It's been gone for a long time. He's looking at the pokeweed bushes near the tree...

More Cedar Waxwing studies...

You might recognize a couple of these Cedar Waxwing paintings from a post I did for Birding is Fun, but I kept adding to them through the week, so I thought I'd post the rest of them here. Most of these paintings were inspired from a few sketches I did on November 5 at Fort Ancient (the largest prehistoric earthen hilltop enclosure in the United States). Crunching through drifts of yellow and red leaves by the Mound Trail, I was making so much noise I had to stop every now and then just to hear! Eventually a familiar sound filled the woodlands, and I heard the tinkling, metallic high-pitched “srees” of a small flock of Cedar Waxwings...

Painting 194. Cedar Waxwing on the Mound Trail

(Red and Black Conte crayon painted over with a waterbrush)

I've just recently started using conte crayon again. I love it....it's so quick; no pencil sketches or under drawings are required.

Painting 193. Cedar Waxwing on the Mound Trail...No Berries

(Red and Black Conte crayon painted over with a waterbrush)

Painting 192. Cedar Waxwing in Autumn Color

(Oil Pastel)

Painting 191. Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

(Watercolor heightened with charcoal)

Pencil Sketch of Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

Painting 190. Cedar Waxwing Looking for Berries

(Watercolor)

Painting 189. Cedar Waxwing at Fort Ancient

(Watercolor)

...this is how I usually see Cedar Waxwings--eating berries from the mulberry trees as I look on below. This is the finished painting. On the Birding is Fun post, I had just started this painting.

Painting 188. Cedar Waxwing with Bittersweet Berries

(Watercolor heightened with colored pencil)

...from a winter memory when I found a small flock of Cedar Waxwings eating bittersweet berries.

Painting 187. Two Cedar Waxwings--Plain for Rick

(Watercolor)

Pencil Sketch for Two Cedar Waxwings--Plain for Rick

(Watercolor)

These paintings are all quick studies for the 100 Painting challenge. Only a handful to go! I might finish early this year. Last year, I finished Painting #100 on New Year's Eve...

Indigo Buntings at Kelley Nature Preserve

Rick and Matty played hockey together today at the Indian Hill Winter Club. This is the first time father and son have been on a team together. Matty is now old enough, good enough, and big enough to play in a men's non-checking hockey league, and yahoo to the fact the league is at the Indian Hill Winter Club--the most beautiful of all the hockey rinks in Cincinnati. Any hockey mom will tell you "beautiful" and "hockey rink" rarely fit together in the same sentence, but this time it's true. The Indian Hill Winter Club looks like a rustic ski lodge plucked right out of the wilds of Montana. Complete with two huge stone fireplaces and a cozy lounge, the Indian Hill Winter Club always gets a thumbs up from the moms, but.......I don't care about the bar, the food or the cozy leather couches--at all. I get excited because it's the only hockey rink in Cincinnati located on the banks of a reclaimed gravel pit that is deep and wide and attracts lots and lots of ducks...and recently has been hosting an American Bald Eagle or two. Even better, it's only two minutes away from one of my favorite birding spots, the Kelley Nature Preserve.

Today, after dropping Rick and Matty off at the rink, I hightailed it over to the preserve. The clouds above were dark and threatening, but I knew I could get a little birding in before the heavens let loose. I had about 35 minutes before the game would begin (and I could always be a little late...there are three periods after all). As soon as I pulled into the parking lot I could hear two Eastern Towhees singing back and forth in the trees to the left of the gazebo. What a beautiful call. With one of the most memorable mnemonics, the Eastern Towhee's "Drink your tea....." song always makes me happy. I spotted the orange, black and white high in the tree and listened for a while, eventually moving on to the path north of the gazebo that leads to the meadow. I was hoping to find Indigo Buntings at the forest opening, and they were everywhere.

A male Indigo Bunting was singing near the forest's edge. He would fly out into the meadow and sing, only to return to his perch high in the tree.

Can you tell this is a different male in a different spot. He is smoother and farther along in his molt. He was chipping back and forth with his mate, flying from branch to branch.

...here is his sweet little mate. I first heard her chipping in the brush and found her in a small snag near where the tree limb hangs low over the trail at the meadow's edge as it re-enters the forest. Even though she lacks the brilliant blue of the male, she is so pretty, and I love her gorgeous eyes.

...the same little female flies up into the dead tree rimming the edge of the trail. Both birds would meet up and follow each other from branch to branch, constantly chipping to each other.

...yet another male Indigo Bunting. He was near the beginning of the meadow, in the area where all the saplings are growing. At one point there were four males hollering out their song in trees at the four corners of the meadow. It was wonderful to hear.

As I was leaving the meadow, a flock of 14 Cedar Waxwings, singing and squeaking overhead, flew into a large Mulberry tree and started to devour the berries. The mulberries weren't even ripe yet, but the waxwings didn't seem to mind.

I love the metallic squeaking and constant motion of a flock of Cedar Waxwings as they move through a tree eating the berries. The two birds on the left were feeding each other berries, never sitting still...

Kelley Nature Preserve is a small woodland of only 42 acres, but it hugs the Little Miami River (now you know why I love it) and is very close to the Indian Hill greenbelt. Surrounded by trees, it seems to be a magnet for migrating warblers. Every time I go there I spot something cool. I've seen more Ovenbirds there than anywhere else (I love that little orange stripe on their heads)...and Magnolia Warblers too... Raindrops started to fall, so I headed out. I think I got about 40 minutes of birding in. I'll take it!

...father and son on the ice together for the first time. Matty did so well, even grabbing the puck for a breakaway--and shooting and scoring--yeah!

Birding at Fort Ancient State Memorial in Warren County, Ohio

I think I’ve found a new haunt—Fort Ancient! Located just 15 minutes up I-71 from where we live in Warren County, Fort Ancient is located on a gorgeous wooded plateau perched 245 feet above the Little Miami River. What makes it special? It is the largest prehistoric earthen hilltop enclosure in the United States. Built 2000 years ago by Mound Builders, the earth walls stretch 3.5 miles, enclosing over 100 acres of hilltop. Mound Builders used small baskets to move more than 553,000 cubic yards of soil to form the earthen walls that reach from 4 to 23 feet in height. Amazingly, most of the earthworks are still visible and retain the same form they had over 2000 years ago! Archeologists estimate it took about 400 years (100BC – 290AD) to build the entire complex.

A 2000 year old earthen wall at Fort Ancient State Memorial.

As you drive through the park, you can see earthen walls rimming the plateau. Believed to

be a gathering place and religious ceremonial complex, Fort Ancient has specific ties to the Summer and Winter Solstice.

Click here for a link to the Ohio Archaeology Blog for a post on the Winter Solstice celebration on Dec 20, 2008 and previous Summer Solstice celebrations.

I love these signs....thank goodness some of the mounds and earthworks in our state have been protected and preserved.

While I was there, I visited the bookstore (of course) at the museum and found two really nice books to help me learn about the Hopewell Culture and the Mound Builders of Ohio:

Ohio Archaeology, by Bradley T. Lepper

This book is fabulous. It chronicles all the earthworks in Ohio. It will be my primary reference as I learn more and more about these prehistoric sites scattered throughout our state. It's loaded with survey maps, photos, the most recent analysis of the purpose of the earthworks, and history. I already caught Matty reading it too. It's very interesting.

The Fort Ancient Earthworks, Prehistoric Lifeways of the Hopewell Culture in Southwestern Ohio, Edited by Robert P. Connolly and Bradley T. Lepper.

This book is specific to Fort Ancient and is a bit more technical. I don't think it was written for lay people because it was based on a symposium sponsored by the Ohio Historical Society, but I'm crazy for it!! It's loaded with survey maps and in-depth articles on all aspects of Fort Ancient.

To top it off, I heard and saw lots of birds and will definitely be back for more birding as well as studying the magnificent earthen walls. I'm sure Fort Ancient will be a jackpot during spring migration. Among the highlights of Sunday's birding was a huge flock of Cedar Waxwings hawking insects above the North Overlook of the South Fort. I've seen large flocks of Cedar Waxwings along the Little Miami River near where we live systematically moving from tree to tree and devouring insects on the wing, but this flock was larger than any I'd ever seen. A constant flurry of activity, the birds were thick in the air as they constantly dove out to nab insects, returning to the towering oaks for just a moment before launching back out for another snack! Tiny flakes of tree debris kept falling all around me as the birds disturbed the upper branches en masse. It almost appeared they were using the twigs for springboards to launch themselves back out into the sky...

Cedar Waxwings, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Warblers, and Orchard and Baltimore Orioles at the Great Blue Heron Heronry

While photographing the baby Blues and listening to their froggy little cries, I could hear a mix of other birds' songs in the woodlands surrounding the heronry more so than any other time I had been there. The songs were so pronounced, they kept pulling my attention away from the herons. I heard two Wood Thrushes in the woods, and over by the small creek, a Swainson’s Thrush...and while those beauties were singing, a Baltimore Oriole started in by the tree line just past the pasture. I looked up and found him gleaning insects…next to him by about 15 feet, a Rose-breasted Grosbeak doing the same thing. As I shot a few photos of the Grosbeak, I heard that distinctive chitter-chatter of a Cedar Waxwing and soon 10 to 12 followed, hopping from branch to branch searching for caterpillars, ants, moths, beetles and any other type of insect they could find. The calls kept coming, varied, and fast…a Nashville Warbler popped into view as well at two “Butter Butts” (Yellow-rumped Warblers), along with a couple other migrants I didn’t have enough time to identify. The bird song blended with the baby Blues' cries to create an energetic and unique sound…a constant barrage of life that was very exciting! I wanted to make sure I could remember what it sounded like, so I closed my eyes and let it sink in. (I can tell you, however, as I sit here writing, I can't recapture the sound in my mind. I guess it's one of those things you have to hear to experience, and when it's gone, it's gone.) In another tree, I saw movement and an Orchard Oriole came into view. I had just read about them earlier in the day, so my brain immediately IDd the bird. I watched him through the binocs, studying his coloring, which was a shade or two darker and rustier than the Baltimore Oriole. After about an hour of watching and listening to the herons and migrants, I had to leave. Some of the birds had moved on and weren't singing quite as much; however, the babies……..they hadn’t let up their cries for food one iota!

A Red-breasted Grosbeak foraging in the trees surrounding the heronry.

A flock of Cedar Waxwings joins them. They 

seem to be especially interested in the tassles!

Winterberry Holly is on my Spring Planting Wishlist

Two weeks ago I posted a small blurb about the beautiful red berry bush just outside the viewing room at the Caesar Creek Lake Visitor’s Center. Last week when I went back, I asked the ranger about it. I didn’t even have to finish my sentence before she blurted out, “Isn’t it beautiful? It’s a Winterberry Holly. We get tons of questions about it.”


That evening I did a little research and found it’s also called “black alder” and “fever bush.” The National Audubon Society’s Field Guide to Wildflowers, Eastern Region, says,

This shrub is extremely showy in late fall and early winter, when covered with bright fruits. Birds are readily attracted to them.

Well, that sounds good to me! I garden for the birds all the time and am always looking for new plants. My native red mulberry trees are amazing, especially when dripping with Cedar Waxwings. In the summer, I love it when I’m outside and first hear their twittery call. All I have to do is look up into the mulberry and there they are. But the nice thing about winterberry hollies is even if the birds decide to pass them by, they are stunning in the drab, winter landscape. Some references indicate winterberries are often used by birds only as emergency food sources, and that is good too.

Winterberry holly is native to eastern Canada and the eastern half of the Unite States. It likes a wet foot, so if you have swampy area in your yard (which I do), you’re set. Winterberry holly is dioecious, so you need to buy at least one male plant and one female plant to obtain the beautiful red berries. In the photo, you’ll notice it sheds its leaves in the fall. Being deciduous is part of its charm, because the berries are all the more noticeable.

An interesting tidbit, the common name "fever bush," comes from the fact that native Americans (of eastern North America) used winterberry to reduce fever.