Here I am in March and playing catch-up on my pages, too much going on? Maybe, I'll need to think about this going forward.
January 9th, my first walk up here where I saw and photographed the crossbills.
Female eating
I was just thinking about my Crossbill encounters and if you look back, I was seeing small groups, usually a female and young or 2 or 3 females, now I am seeing bigger flocks, time of year or I am noticing more of them than before?
I often didn't realise there was a flock of them until I'd stopped and started taking photos and really looking. There are two in the shot above!
Four females eating
It's not simple to spot all the birds in this shot so I kind of get how people can walk right by and not even notice them, they're not the noisiest bird ever either.
Mixed flock eating
I'm not actually sure how many there are in that shot, six or seven? One you thing you can see is the colour difference between male and female.
Two males and a female
Step back or zoom out a little ...
Two males and three females?
Hungry female
So my glimpses on this day were of this one flock feeding not far up the road, I walked my usual walk, bringing me back this way but saw no more birds.
There are times that I don't see any Crossbills and sometimes I get a glimpse as they fly over so those events aren't posted here, hence there can be gaps in the dates as well as those times I don't come up to the reservoir.
January 16th saw my next visit with a Crossbill encounter and not a great one photographically speaking but, they all count to me.
Small group in treetops
I spotted a small flock flying over me as I was walking back to the car park, these ones stopped off at the tip of the clump of pines near the boat shed so as I walked that way anyway, I was able to keep an eye out for them and they were still there as I passed.
Looks like two males and a female to me. I switched to the P950 zoom to try for better or closer shots. The P950 allows me to get much closer shots but hand holding it can be challenging.
Two males and a young female
I've seen quite a few grey / yellowish birds and having now seen young birds which are grey, I am guessing these are young females just coming into their natural colour.
Two males and a young female closer
Young female and male
You can see the grey colouring in these shots. I walked slowly past the group, they were pretty high and well into the trees but I was hoping to get better views from the other side.
I think this shot also shows the hazard of trying to hand hold and focus on two birds at full zoom :)
I did indeed get a good view of the entire flock from the other side but, also, they of me so, they were off!
Seven bird flock
And so I discover that I either didn't go up to the reservoir very much at all in February or I did but saw no Crossbills!
