Thursday, December 20, 2012

Time for White-winged Crossbills

White-winged Crossbill, Salisbury Beach State Reservation
Grading done, Christmas shopping done, time to finally make the drive up to Salisbury to hang with the white-winged crossbills. They've been in the campground pine trees for weeks now. Right now it's a male crossbill show though there a still a few females about.
White-winged Crossbills, Salisbury Beach State Reservation
The campground is large so I first drove around trying to find them. When I finally parked and got out of the car I realized that was a mistake. Their twittering can be heard from quite far away and the flock is large and easy to spot (and hear) in flight.
They are very cool birds, with their distinctive customized beak and acrobatic poses. But I wasn't prepared for how pretty they were.
Perfect Christmas tree ornaments.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Yes, the ears are the first point of contact in many instances.

As a music immersion creature, I've gradually phased into a fan of sound.

And, as I roam the glades and glens, I've come to be alert to odd little bird ways, akin to busy intersections, particularly in wetlands where multiple ecotones collide.

It's interesting to see them forage in introduced trees of landscape plantings.

I wonder if redpolls will show up?

Peter Oehlkers said...

Yes. There are redpolls about for sure. I've even heard of some hoary sightings.