As a photographer, whenever I come upon this species, it
is absolutely imperative that the camera equipment come out
and I anticipate great images. I am certainly not a lover of
cold weather but on one very brisk winter day late in January
2014, I was attempting to photograph the ice that so rarely
occurs on Kiawah. I came upon a juniper tree full of sapphirecolored blue berries and, of course, a flock of cedar waxwings.
It was like a feeding frenzy with my avian friends noisily
attempting to feast upon their newly found afternoon meal.
Some of the berries, due to the frigid conditions, were
totally encased in a solid block of ice that hardened around
the exterior. The birds were perched in a sizeable group,
trying to sort out which part of the icy pulp they could
successfully consume. Some were actually fluttering in mid
air as they plucked berries. It was obvious that they were pros,
and they managed to get full bellies without much effort. As
for me, my hands were frozen, even with gloves, making it
difficult to work the photographic equipment. It took days to
thaw out from my hypothermic photographic adventure with
the waxwings, but happily the escapade yielded some of my
favorite winter Kiawah images. NK
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