by Alan E. Rudd
We have had the typical bumper crop of red berries in the yaupon (Ilex vomitoria) thickets of Burleson County again this year. Last year during the February 2023 cold spell these berries that contain hard seeds were consumed by legions of robins (Turdus migratorius). A mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) that owns our front-yard and half the farm, fought thousands of these rest-breasted raiders trying to protect his winter food supply. He lost the battle, but survived to eat grasshoppers as the spring season warmed toward the heat of summer.
Today is the “Ides of March” 2024 and so far very few robins have ganged-up in the oak thickets of Edwards Ranch. I saw them in the woods along Sandy Creek in February, but they never touched the yaupon berries near the house. A sizable flock of cedar waxwings (Bombycilla cedrorum), however, have been staying about and gorging themselves on yaupon fruit for the last three days. These calm, gregarious birds allowed me stand at a distance of six feet and watch them pluck red berries from a 12-foot tall female yaupon. It required me to be completely still and lean into a tree trunk, while doing my best to impersonate shaggy bark. I watched predator eat prey. After eating berries for less than a minute the birds flew up into the height of a nearby bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), only to repeatedly return to the yaupon to continue the feast. The winged berry-predators were dropping seeds processed through their digestive tract to the fertile ground below.
Those waxwings were smiling. The yaupons, too, were smiling. As in every true symbiotic relationship, who is the master and who is the servant?
Nature Along the El Camino Real 