El Bandito

If you do any gardening you find yourself on occasion very low to the ground. Perhaps under a small apple tree digging holes to plant some bee balm that will eventually grow to 5 feet tall and take over your garden. Being low to the ground between plants can sometimes make you kind of invisible to birds that just showed up on the scene. Many robins have landed a few feet away from us only to realize “hey, you’re not a grub” and waddle away mildly perturbed. This time though a small sinister looking bird we had never seen before popped out of the hedge and caught our eye. The small little bird we lovingly nicknamed “el bandito” was a Cedar Waxwing. One or two days a year a posse would show up when our two apple trees have blossoms. We would almost be mad at them as they ate all the flower petals robbing us of any apples, but they are just too cool looking. It seems like from every angle something new strikes you about them. Whether it’s the stylish black mask, the creamy smooth tan color, or the hot rod yellow and red flourishes they don’t seem to have a bad side.