Bohemian Waxwings - Arapahoe

[Jared Del Rosso]

On January 1, a sharp-eyed participant in the urban Denver CBC spotted a Bohemian Waxwing amid a large flock of Cedars along the High Line Canal in Cherry Hills Village in Arapahoe County. (Apologies to that person -- I don't have a list of participants and so can't credit them.) This allowed all 15 of us participating in the count to get looks at the bird, a lifer for many on the trip.

I returned to the Canal in Cherry Hills Village today on a walking break. There are many, many waxwings feeding on buckthorn (and, no doubt, helping reseed it). I encountered a Bohemian among them, south of Quincy Ave, along the Canal near Blackmer Hall of Kent Denver School. 

I had only brief views of the Bohemian, before losing it among the brush and Cedars. Not only are waxwing moving along the canal, from spot to spot, they're also incredibly active wherever they stop. They work the ground (for water) to the canopy of cottonwoods (for sun and melting snow, it seems). So birders who hope to find the Bohemian would be well-served bringing either several other birders with them, the better to check all the waxwings, or packing all the patience and, better yet, dumb luck they can find.

I enjoyed watching the Cedar Waxwings drinking from melting snow, off cottonwood and pine branches. At one point, I saw one waxwing offer either food (amid the pines -- insects?) or water (in the form of melting snow) to another. It seems late for a parent to tend to young. It seems early for one of a pair to tend to the other. I skimmed Birds of the World, but didn't see anything about this sort of behavior in winter. (Admittedly, I didn't read the entry exhaustively.) Has anyone else noticed this? No pictures, as the birds were in the shadows of pines.

There is an incredible amount of buckthorn spread out along the Canal, but there do seem to be fewer drupes on the plants than on January 1. The whole portion of Canal -- from Colorado to the edge of Kent Denver -- is worth investigating. (Cassin's Finches have also been found on this portion of trail lately.) So too is the riparian line that emerges from the southern edge of Blackmer Lake. In years past, starlings, waxwings, robins, and sparrows (in impressive numbers) visited the buckthorn there. 

At home, in Centennial, a White-throated Sparrow continues in my yard. An American Tree Sparrow has also visited, along with two White-crowned Sparrows, several Spotted Towhees, and many juncos.

- Jared Del Rosso

Centennial, CO

[Susanna Donato]

Thanks for this detailed description! I walked the canal here this afternoon (1 pm-ish) across the High Line Canal Trail from Blackmer Lake. I could hear the waxwings and spent a long time trying to get a good glimpse of them and some photos. There were at least 4-6 Bohemian waxwings with the group. Merlin picked them out from the cedar waxwings, and I got very clear views through binoculars of the Bohemians, which were hanging out together high up in a slim cottonwood where it bent and there was a lot of brush. I too saw one bird offering something to another. I would have thought I imagined it in all the brush except that you had noted the same behavior. (Merlin also thought it heard a white-throated sparrow along the trail in this area, but I didn't see it.)