[CT Birds] Fw: Cedar Wax Wings

[Gary Prestash]

Just back from Southern VT and reported this to the VT folks, and just passing on to the CT birders who might be interested....

Gary Prestash
Hamden, CT

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Gary Prestash 
To: VTBIRD at LIST.UVM.EDU 
Sent: Monday, January 21, 2008 7:19 PM
Subject: Cedar Wax Wings


My wife and I vacationed over the long w/e in Putney, VT, and I was on the prowl for Cedar Wax Wings.  A VT birder by the name of Al Merritt gave me some possible locations in the Putney/Brattleboro area to check out, but I hit the jackpot on Rt 5 out the north end of Brattleboro.  Both Saturday and Sunday (and we saw them again today as we drove back to CT) there were probably 50 to 75 Cedar Wax Wings in the trees out in front of C&S Wholesale Grocery Warehouse, just a short distance before the spot where Rt 5 crosses over I-91.  Look for the Hampton Inn  and the Red Roof Inn on the left side of the road (the motels are side-by-side) driving north on Rt  5 from Brattleboro and pull into the parking lot for the Red Roof Inn, which is the second one.  If you look across the road at the C&S warehouse, you will see about 5 or 6 crab apple trees between the road and the chain link fence in front of the warehouse.  The CWW's were perched in several large maple trees, along with some Pine Grosbeaks and unfortunately, many starlings, and then would dive down into the crab apple trees and the gorge themselves until a loud truck or other noisy vehicle frightened them back up into the maples for while.  This cycle was repeated over and over all day, both days. 

There seems to be a fair amount of fruit remaining on the crab apple trees so these guys should be there for a while.  Obviously, be courteous in the Red Roof Inn parking lot since technically, you could be considered trespassers.  I spent several hours up on the high snowbank in front of the Red Roof Inn, out as close to the road as I could safely get, along with my camera and 600mm lens mounted on a tripod and no one from the motel ever came out to check me out, but several cars honked their horns when they saw the size of the lens I was using (still not enough for good images of single birds from that distance - Rt 5 is really quite wide there and the trees are at least 15 ft or more back from the edge of the road on the other side - but for spotting scopes, this is nothing.

Enjoy the wax wings while they are still in that area.  No, did not see any Bohemians.......sigh!


Gary Prestash
Hamden, CT