Not the birds I expected

Female White-winged Crossbill

Despite a rather severe head cold, I decided to take advantage of the very nice weather today (7 C) to do a bit of bird watching at lunch. I gave the Burlington Lift Bridge canal a miss today and try some other local birding spots. I ended up with two nice new winter birds, but didn't see the ones I expected to.

I started off at Paletta Park on the waterfront to see if there were any Brown Creepers this time around. I also saw a Tufted Titmouse there at this time last year, but there hadn't been any reports so far this year. It was pretty overcast at this time, but I was also hoping to have another chance to photograph some Golden-crowned Kinglets. Other than Mallards and Canada Geese the only birds I saw were Black-capped Chickadees and Northern Cardinals. I heard some woodpeckers and nuthatches, but they did not put in an appearance.

Two female White-winged Crossbills

Giving up on Paletta I drove down the street to La Salle Marina. The sun came out while I was driving, and as I was passing the Burlington Golf and Country Club I saw a half dozen birds fly into the top of a pine tree. I should point out (to reassure Lynda) that I was not watching for birds while driving. They passed in front of me and I pulled into a parking lot and got out of the car to see what they were. I do not endorse birding and driving.

The birds in question were in the top of a pine tree across the street from the parking lot I pulled into (I believe it was the Burlington Golf and Country Club parking lot). I could see the birds moving around in the top of the tree calling and generally behaving like finches. With the sun out strongly by this time, the birds were very backlit and hard to identify. They were larger than American Goldfinches, but hanging upside-down on the cones feeding. I was fairly sure they were White-winged Crossbills, which I confirmed looking at the pictures afterwards.

Male White-winged Crossbill

This was my second time seeing Crossbills. The first time was just last Boxing Day, but the conditions were not good for photography. They were too distant for the lens I had available at the time and came out very backlit. I was pleasantly surprised to see that a number of my shots today came out well, and are my first good photographs of these birds.

Male American Wigeon

When I made it to La Salle I was hoping to see a Brown Creeper or a Tundra Swan. Tundra Swans were all over La Salle this time last year, but I didn't see any today. The bay was mostly frozen over close to shore with a couple of small pools of open water. Mallards, Canada Geese, Mute Swans, Trumpeter Swans, American Black Ducks, and Ring-billed Gulls were abundant. A little way down the pathway there was a single male American Wigeon. Last winter several pairs hung out at La Salle last winter, and I seemed compelled to photograph them whenever I saw them. We have a screensaver on our computer that randomly displays a picture for 20 seconds, and Wigeons are very well represented due to the number of photographs they are subject in.