December 31st! Who'd have thought it? Here we are at year's end and I'm up at the reservoir on a glorious day. My walk up here varies between 3 and 5 miles depending on weather, what I see and the time of day, I really did not expect to have a good Crossbill session today, then again, I never really expect anything, it's all a surprise.
Male catching the sun
So this group were up in a tree right next to the path and enjoying a good preen, if only they always used this tree.
This is a very male dominated group, whether that's all I could get shots of or there were few females in the group, I don't recall.
Different coloured male?
Not sure about the second bird in those last two shots, male or female?
Male and female
OK so in this shot, of the same two birds, it's a female in the background.
No photographs please!
Now in these two shots, I can't believe there are flechies flying around. It's December 31st!!!
The Supervisor?
Surveying the surroundings
This group of birds had probably just fed and were now enjoying a good clean up.
Checking me out
I love getting those eye to eye shots, they're very aware birds.
Preening station
The lookout?
Watching me again....
Male and female
I found when there's a group like this it's difficult to keep an eye on where they all are, what they are doing, where the best shots are.
Crossbill preening station
You can see now that there were 7 to 9 birds in that tree the entire time. I've been seeing flocks of up to 18 quite often, whereas when I first starting seeing them, it was usually one or two and often a female with younger bird(s)
The entire experience of seeing these beautiful birds at all has been fabulous and I hope I continue to see and photograph them regularly. This was never intended to be a showcase for the best shots ever, rather a diary of my contact with them over the year. Long may it continue.
