Yes, Maybe, No

Cedar Waxwing, upper left, along with rare Bohemian Waxwing

Saturday was one of those weather bonus days here in northeast Ohio. Temperatures snuggled up to the low 60s and the birding hotline made it seem even warmer with reports of special birds in the area.

Susan and I packed up the Red Comet and blasted off for Holden Arboretum, a gem of a spot in Geauga County where an extremely rare visitor, a Bohemian Waxwing, was reported late Friday. When a bird is a lifer for us both there’s no holding back.

Sometimes it’s just too easy. We pulled into the entrance of the arboretum and immediately spotted a half dozen birders. (It’s easy to spot birders when they’re on the bird. Their feet are not touching the ground and they’re making strange squeaking sounds, like “heereee heeree”.)

Sure enough, there the bird sat in the sun with a large flock of Cedar Waxwings. Yes! Got it. Click, click. Then wooooosh, off the flock went. Sharp-eyed Susan was able to get her spotting scope on the bird in a far-off tree, much to the enjoyment of late arrivers.

Common Redpoll

Then it was on to another spot within the arboretum where a second rare visitor, a Hoary Redpoll, had been seen and reported. This was not a lifer for us, but a rare species we seen only once before and needed a better look at. Again, it was easy to find the spot where the bird had been seen. A dozen or so of the region’s better-known birders were already on the scene, politely debating the merits of several possible Hoary Redpolls. These little guys (the birds, not the birders) are a bit of a challenge to separate out from the more common, aaaa, Common Redpoll. Subtle differences in color, streaking, bill size, under-tail coverts ... Right. Birders spend a lot of time looking at butts.

We saw plenty of redpolls. We feel secure that we saw at least one Hoary Redpoll, maybe two. So tick that one off, even if it is in the Maybe column.

Our third target bird, the crossbills, and we had our choice of Red or White-winged species, proved to be no shows. They’ve been reported throughout the area, just not where we happened to be at the time. The bright side is that there are still 67 days until spring, so these visitors from the north will be around for a while. Stay tuned.

It's a bit lighter in color, beak a bit smaller, pink a bit less pink. Is it a Hoary Redpoll. Maybe.