Cedar Waxwings

Outside my upstairs manroom window is the top of a large Centurion Crabapple tree. Every year it is loaded with small crabapples and in a special year Cedar Waxwings stop and feast on the fruit. This year proved to be one of those special years as I looked out the window this morning and found the old tree filled with Waxwings.

 

Also finding a meal were a few robins.

 

Why they don't peck at the fruit I don't know, but it's almost comical to watch them maneuver the fruit around in their beaks until they can swallow it whole.

 

I've already collected scionwood from this tree with plans of grafting several rootstocks with it and planting them in the Back40 so the Centurion crabs fruit can be a late winter snack for birds that call the Back40 home.