December 18, 2020
We had been hearing reports of lots of Bohemian Waxwings, although we had struck out on a couple of attempts. Bruce Di Labio had reported lots at the Arboretum, so we decided to try there. We parked at the Friends of the Farm building because I had a hunch they would be in the trees just north of there. No luck. So we decided to hike over to Fletcher, checking all of the fruit trees on the way. Half way along, we came to an overgrown juniper tree and saw a bunch of robins.
Then, a few Cedar Waxwings flew into the same tree, and we briefly spotted a Bohemian or two as well.
It was our target species, but we wanted more! A couple of women came by and told us about a tree full over past the barn. So of we went. But the trouble was, we were not sure which barn. We looked across the road, and then moved on to the barn at Fletcher - no waxwings.
We noticed some photographers partly hidden in the trees, so decided to investigate later. Meanwhile, we did a tour of the trails at Fletcher and came up empty. So, back to look for the presumed owl that the photographers had been on. Yes, Barbara spotted the Barred Owl buried up in a tree.
We hiked back to the car along the side of Prince of Wales in the case the waxwings showed up. They didn't. We weren't too disappointed since we had seen a couple of them and also the Barred Owl bonus.
Remembering the traffic jam on Baseline, we took the NCC Driveway over to Carling. It occurred to us that we still had an outside chance of seeing Bohemian Waxwings along there. And there they were, hundreds of them. There was no place to stop, so we went up over the curb, partly on the grass - hope the cops don't come along! Wow, they were in the trees, the shrubs and on the ground. What a bonanza. We made as second stop further along when we saw another huge bunch. What a success!
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