Bohemian Interrupted

My wife is an occasional birder that really seems to pick out a small group of birds she really loves and will from time to time ask me to bring her to one. The latest iteration of this game kicked up when a birder found a few Bohemian Waxwings as Lake Byllesby Regional Park in Dakota County. This is one of her favorite birds and we've only had a couple opportunities to see them and the one time we had 300 or 400 fly over us and exit just as we arrived at a prospective location. The other time we had prior reports of 150 on the north shore and found a single bird present with only mediocre optics to enjoy.

So we got up and snagged a Starbucks breakfast and started driving south for Point Douglas Park in Washington County first. (aiming for Long-tailed Duck and Glaucous Gull) We were about 5 miles out when a series of cell phone pings told me that something serious was happening. Greg Jahner had found and was still watching a Bohemian Waxwing in Washington County!! Melissa and I were also just 6 miles from that location. After a few seconds I knew we had to redirect with Greg noting he would stay on the bird for anyone coming to look.

I knew the cedar grove he was pointing us towards so it was a quick jaunt towards Grey Cloud Island. I found him setup on the shoulder of a relatively quiet road and we parked and zipped out of the car with Greg on the bird via scope. Seconds out of the car I had gotten Washington County year bird 242 for my big year and life time bird 252, edging me closer to county legend Tom Bell and his 253 listed in MOU records.

Top center bird. 

After a minute the entire flock of Cedar Waxwing and the Bohemian lifted and acted like they were going to exit. We thought at first a Northern Shrike had made a run at them as a bird landed on the tree top behind us. I looked up and found that it was a Townsend's Solitaire instead. (Two rarities within about 100' of each other!) The flock settled in though after a minute of watching them fly around and seeing the size difference of the 2 Waxwing species. Several birders came out very quickly to get this coveted bird including Kevin Manley, Pete Nichols, Larry Sirvio, Dana Sterner, Michael Sack, Bob Williams, and Gavin Anderson. This is the fun added part of birding, how often you see friends by accident, while we all go about our hobby in our own ways and converge on something really cool.

My wife and I then headed out and stopped at a few locations including Point Douglas and picked up really nice pictures of the Glaucous Gull I had found a week prior and the Long-tailed Duck that another birder found while looking for the Glaucous Gull. (Patagonia Picnic Table Effect.)

Glaucous Gull with Mallard photo bomb. 

With both of those nice rare birds on the list we did some county road driving in Dakota County looking for Snowy Owl or Snow Bunting, but came up empty. We got all the way down to Lake Byllesby Regional Park and though those Bohemian Waxwing were not present we did find 3 more Townsend's Solitaire, which was pretty cool.

We had a great day of birding together and picked up a number of birds Melissa had never seen and of course the Bohemian Waxwing she really wanted to see the most, just not the one we would have guessed.