March 26th, back at the reservoir. I love the walk here, I can get 4 - 5 miles easily while enjoying the peace and quiet as well as photographing the birds and, in the right conditions, there are a lot of them.
As ever, top of my lookout list are Crossbills and it wasn't long before I spotted one, again a female.
It's 10:15 and I'm making my way up towards the picnic bench and beyond and it's at the bench area, becoming a favourite spot for me, that I see crossbills again, this time, up close.
I found a tree stump near the bench and next to a fallen tree so I often sit there quietly just watching the trees all around, there can be quite a variety of birds in this area and this female was sitting in this tree, stripping bark by the look of it and not bothered by my presence at all. Wonder if it's the same one? :)
You can see she is keeping an eye on me yet again and no wonder, letting me get this close.
I meet quite a few people up here walking and most have never seen a Crossbill and probably have no idea what they look like so I feel privileged to be able to sit and watch and photograph them so often.
You can see in this last two shots I was moving around to get different angles and she still wasn't too bothered.
Most of these shots aren't cropped or if they are, it's only to centre the bird in the image, the one above however, is cropped to give a closer view of her.
I can't remember whether she moved or the next shots are of a different bird, I'll keep on top of these in the future for better knowledge of each shot and bird.
I have a feeling that this might be a younger bird, maybe a year old but truth be told, I have no idea :)
You can see in this shot I've moved around again.
I love it when they cock their head, something catches their eye or they're looking down to check on me.
There's almost trust in that eye, at least comfortable with my presence ..... for now.
From memory, the birds cleared off so I headed for home, a very happy chappy being allowed to get such close contact and photographs.
it would be into April before I saw more.
