Yesterday was a crisp, clear, bright day - a marvelous day for birding and wonderful light for photography. I drove to the Massachusetts shore. Crossbills were being reported in the campground at Salisbury Beach.
The cone-laden pine trees hosted flocks of
White-winged Crossbills and
Red Crossbills, the most concentrated winter irruption of these boreal species that I have seen. Here is an early sampling. I'll post additional photos soon.
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| White-winged Crossbill (male) |
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| Red Crossbill (female and male) |
Crossbills usually travel in single species flock (Sibley), but there was a mixed flock (or two separate flocks which decided to forage in the same trees), as seen in this photo ...
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| White-winged Crossbill (l) and Red Crossbill (r) |
Red-breasted Nuthatches were clearly another irruptive boreal species, with numbers almost rivaling the crossbills ...
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch |
As I stood with two other birders was watching the crossbills feeding, my binoculars picked up a
Common Redpoll. I casually named the bird. A few moments later, one of the birders said, "Thank you. That's a life bird." It is always gratifying to help others add to their observations.
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| Common Redpoll |
In the estuary near the campground,
Bonaparte's Gull provided an accesible display of their tern-like hovering ...
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| Bonaparte's Gull |
At Plum Island, a scan of the ocean produced a rare Western Grebe, plus Horned Grebe, Common and Red-throated Loon, Razorbills, Surf and Black Scoters, Common Eider, and Red-breasted Merganser, all fairly close to shore but too distant for photography. At the waters edge was a flock of
Sanderling and
Dunlin ...
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| Sandering (l) and Dunlin (r) |
A day of Good Birding!!
