Waxwing's Wise Wink

I’ll never forget the time I saw the biggest flock of Cedar Waxwings I’ve ever seen at Stowel Lake Farm here on Salt Spring Island two summers ago during what I called, “Time of the Fire Sun” as, unfortunately, we’d had so many forest fires in British Columbia (and consequently, a greater than usual migration of birds to the island). The following June I encountered these beautiful Waxwings again by sheer chance. I decided to head back home along Baker Road rather than walking into town that morning and was standing, gazing over at the pond in the field across the way when a flash of lemon-yellow and champagne-rose caught my eye—a pair of Waxwings alit on a tree right in front of me. I was enchanted by their silky plumage and those bandits’ masks in such perfect lighting and couldn’t believe my luck! The lovely Waxwing in my photo and her partner only stayed for about a minute, but I was so grateful to have had that fleeting moment to photograph them. This Waxwing was the inspiration for a poem I later wrote for my dear friend. I imagined "dreams of flight to be hidden in her wings with their red-wax seals".