Some years, I hear a high keening sound in the back yard, strange, insistent, and electronic, and then I realize the Cedar Waxwings are passing through. They love to light upon my neighbor's tall old liquidambar tree, on bare branches high up which offer a sociable spot to gather in early morning and mid-afternoon.
I did not see them last year, though attending to their possibility, and missed their stopover in our old trees, the peculiar tone penetrating my mind, continuing on and on. I love to think of the journey they make to our southwestern location, leaving the snowy cold north for a time.
They are handsome large birds, the crest on the head and the sharp dark eyestripe making them look like hipsters. They are beautifully detailed, with a red stripe on the wings and tail, and a delicately shaded pale yellow stomach.
I have seen a pair of Northern Flickers, too, another lovely large bird with a striking black "bib" on its chest. The underparts of the tail feathers and some wing feathers are a brilliant yellow-orange. 
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