BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS AGAIN.

    Bohemian waxwings are a very common winter bird in this area. (Central Alberta). They appear about the end of November to mid December. They travel in rather large flocks so are very noticeable. The rest of the year they spend in the boreal forest.

    Waxwings are very attractive with the bright red and yellow markings. You can get very close to them when they are feeding on mountain ash berries. When they are resting in the daytime they find a huge tree where as many of them as possible jockey for spaces. They groom and enjoy the sun.

    Last week I wrote about how the waxwings are pursued by merlins. This week I observed the action again. There were many waxwings in the tree in my front yard as they were feeding in my neighbor's mountain ash. I got a few photos and as I was looking for another photo the flock exploded and left. As waxwings do they formed a dense ball and rose . Then I noticed a different bird. You almost think it's a waxwing that didn't here go. But it was the merlin. Again I didn't see him make a kill but I haven't had waxwings all week.

BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS

     Bohemian waxwings give us some fantastic shows in the winter. They are beautiful birds with some bright red and yellow highlights.

     Bohemian waxwings tend to hang out in rather large flocks. They start out smaller in early winter and gradually grow to be huge flocks which are very noticeable. It's amazing to see a large flock of birds take off all at the same instant. What's to communication they have that tells them to begin flight as if they are one bird?

     Flocks become larger as they feast on Mountain ash berries. The snow under roosting trees gets covered with the remains of the red mountain ash berries. And then they have the nerve to poop on cars.

     For me the best part of bohemian waxwings is when they are pursued by a predator. The predator in this area is the merlin. The merlin's method of predation is to get under a flock. The flock rises to get away from the merlin. Sooner or later a weak bird will drop for the flock. The merlin is on the bird like lightening.

     Today a large flock was in my district. And yes the merlin was here too. I saw the merlin chase the flock but I didn't see him make a kill.

     Are you watching the beautiful bohemian waxwings?

The Birds Are Moving

     On Tues. Oct. 25, I happened to be looking out the window just as a couple of robins went by. Now they were flying north west so they weren't migrating south unless they were taking the long way south. It doesn't surprise me to see robins the end of October. I have seen robins in every month of the year at Red Deer. 

     A few minutes later I saw some Bohemian waxwings fly by. The waxwings were a little more than tree level high while the robins were probably 80 -100 m high.

     At the same time there were seagulls meandering by. I could not identify the seagulls. 

    So there's a mixed bag here. The robins should have been out of here.  It's early for waxwings to show up. Some gulls hang around here until mid to late December.

    It all makes for some interesting sightings from a city window.

Gigantic Flock of Bohemian Waxwings.

      At this time of year the waxwing flocks start to get very large. There are large flocks all winter but they tend to get very large about March.


      Today I saw the largest flock of bohemian waxwings that I have ever seen. I would say that there were from 800 to 1000 birds. 


     These birds were in the southeast of Red Deer in the Sunny Brook subdivision about 3:30 PM. 

This large poplar tree didn't hold very many birds but there were many others flying around looking for a perch.

     They were a gorgeous sight.