Magnusen Park, 10 Jan 08


Waxwing hunt

A bird list has reported a Bohemian Waxwing in Magnusen Park for the last week or so. So instead of my normal walk with Tikka today, I went on my second ever "birding" outing. (I almost said first there, but then remembered going to a specific place in Iceland to try to see Puffins.) Tikka and I got very muddy and wet. The walk around the park reminded me of my long rambling walks in the forest next to our family home while I was growing up. Lots of little paths through grass, mixed woods, blackberry brambles, and LOTS of bogs. We saw very few birds on our walk, with a few solitary robin, several crows, a couple of chickadees, a small flock of Bushtits, some gulls and cormorants in the distance on Lake Washington. However, after getting in my car and driving around some more, we found a small tree that had about 10 birds in it. I stopped and lo-and-behold, over half of them were Cedar Waxwings, the rest were robins and redwinged blackbirds. I never did see the Bohemian, who has been seen in the company of these birds, but I was happy to see the Cedars. It was a very grey day, but I got a few photos of the birds. We gave up when it started to rain. Am I a birder now? I sure felt a little silly out there with my camera and binocs while everyone else I saw was just walking. It is sort of like any other pursuit, you feel a little "geeky" being too enthusiastic about it. Mostly my birding has centered around having my binocs available to look at birds in the field or on hikes for other purposes, I think it will probably stay that way.


At first, all I got were shots of their cabooses (as Nina might say). But they do show off the nice red on the wings and yellow tail this way.



I liked the colors of the dead leaves and how they match the bird a little in this one.

Posted: Thu - January 10, 2008 at 12:41 PM          

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