White-winged Crossbill

Today I went in search of the White-winged Crossbills that had been seen in Caldwell. I wandered around in the very cold weather on an overcast winter day, and at one point I even thought I heard them. I absolutely heard Red-breasted Nuthatches calling to one another, which made it all worthwhile. I stared into the tops of the trees, looking among all the cones where the crossbills would be using their beak to pry open the cones to extract the seeds.

A bird flew down to a small patch of snow to get some water to drink ... and there it was! The White-winged Crossbill. There was a flock of about 19 of them in the treetops, both the red males and the yellow females, but that was very far away for a photo, and against the hazy sky the pictures came out quite badly. Then a Sharp-shinned Hawk rocketed through the top of the tree and they all dispersed and my Crossbill adventure was over.