I looked out my window on Thursday to see hundreds, maybe thousands of cedar waxwings. I usually see a small flock in March on a nearby crabapple but I'd never seen such large numbers. The photos here are taken from about 6m distance with an itouch.

The waxwings had descended on our next-door neighbours' mayday tree to eat the dried and likely fermented fruit. Further investigation found flocks of them down the entire block on every fruit-bearing tree such as Mountain Ash and crabapples. For several hours, they tossed berries around, gobbled snow off the neighbours' roof and littered the sidewalk where there are now noticeable "wine stains."

Cedar waxings (with the yellow stripe, unlike the larger Bohemian waxwings) are one of Calgary's fancier looking birds with their crests and multicoloured plumage, so it's always a treat to see them, and it's often a one-time event with no advance warning--a rave of waxwings if you will. By 5 p.m. the party was over, and all the stragglers had left.