What an earful !!
Not even the slightest breeze, yet it’s not my imagination that the leaves in the flowering tree beside our pond are rustling. And not just a little, but all over the tree. Then I catch a glimpse of shiny yellow or some waxy red like the sealing wax on a love letter or a lemon yellow underbelly, and I know that for a few days we will be treated to an earful of cedar waxwings. Eyeful would be more apt, but, oddly, a flock of cedar waxwings is known as an earful. (Such a flock may also be a called a museum for some reason - maybe shades of Madame Tussaud). Earful as a collective name is also odd because cedar waxwings don’t have much of a song - mostly a very high pitched sound not unlike a dog whistle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMvJL_GXIlc These beautiful birds swallow berries whole off of the tree. Their winter diet of cedar berries together with the red pigment from the berries that reaches their wingtips account for their name. They don’t hang out in bars, but occasionally an earful of waxwings will land in a tree with overripe, fermented berries. While this can be seriously toxic for some, it mostly may lead to FUI - flying under the influence.