Christmas in Bend, Oregon: Waxwings and Robins

Merry Christmas from Bend, Oregon, just east of the Cascades and Mt. Bachelor. We are staying at the Riverhouse on the Deschutes River. The property is rich with American Mountainash trees, which bear bright red berries during the winter, attracting birds; in our case, hundreds of Cedar Waxwings and American Robins. Above, a Cedar Waxwing resting between courses!  Below, some of the flock warming in the early morning sun.

These distinctive birds eat berries in the fall and winter, usually in large flocks, eating insects in other seasons as they are available.   

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Below, a 4 frame berry eating sequence:

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The Cedar Waxwings shared their abundance with a flock of American Robins, also downing berries whole. 

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Merry Christmas everyone, and best wishes for 2017!

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A note for the photo geeks out there. All images shot with a Canon EOS 7D Mark II with a Canon EF 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 DO IS USM. I have had this lens for 10 years now - it is compact and great for travel, but is a little "soft" and the diffractive optics creates a circular type of bokeh which I think is apparent in the out of focus background. See this lens review by Bryan Carnathan. Also, the lens construction does not allow use of Canon EF telephoto extenders.  Most images shot at 300mm, but for many images I was able to fill the frame. Getting close to the tree and the birds was easy. They were accustomed to a noisy urban environment (cars and trucks) and my presence did not seem to matter. 

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