April 21st, back at the reservoir and back to the picnic bench area, where I start seeing the Crossbills. I often stumble upon them rather than looking out and spotting them. and these shots are a perfect example of that.
Walking past the bench area, I spotted a couple of birds up ahead on the path itself, it was only when I checked through the binoculars that I saw they were crossbills, I'd never seen them so out in the open before so, I kept edging closer with the camera ready and grabbed a few shots.
I only noticed the one bird at first, the other, adult bird was hidden in the shadows.
This looks like a young female and perhaps adult mother bird on the right?
You can this central bird is far more yellow then the other which still has some grey showing through. They didn't stay there long and soon disappeared into the trees so, onward.
It wasn't until the walk back that I spotted a female bird just off the path in the trees.
This may have been the same bird as the previous shots, it's still in the same area.
As you can see, pretty busy feeding off the cones on that tree before I got too close and she was off.
As I got close to the picnic bench area, I noticed movement in one of the Scots Pines next to the path, there was a young bird feeding and it allowed me to stand almost directly beneath it.
Juvenile Crossbill
Yet again, I was allowed to get so close and all it did was keep an eye on me.
Again, some of these shots are cropped to give a closer view but most are they were taken.
I think I've mentioned it before, this bird was absolutely silent the whole time, not a sound, if I hadn't noticed movement, I would have walked right past.
Checking up on me
Back to eating
This is yet another example of me walking away and leaving the bird to it, there are only so many photographs you can take.
