Red Crossbills At Hammonasset

Today, I went to Hammonasset in Madison, Connecticut to look for crossbills and hit the jackpot. These birds are just awesome to watch! The top photo shows eleven, but I counted as many as forty at one time. They were feeding in the trees next to the West Beach parking lot but every so often, they would take off together in a fairly tight flock. They seemed to have an undulating flight, often circling the area several times before coming in for a landing. Crossbills have a very distinct tone to their flight call which is fairly loud and easy to hear. I can understand now how people who are familiar with this species can identify them when they fly over. Here are two male Red Crossbills. When I first arrived, there was one other birder who was very familiar with this species of bird. He said that they like to eat the seeds within the pine cone but not all pine cones have seeds in them every year. They also seemed to be gleaning food-(insects? sap?) from the bark of deciduous trees.

The female crossbills were a subtle yellowish color with dark wings. The photos weren't perfect but I was happy to get some this time around.

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It's just like I anticipated. Once I saw my first crossbill the other day, I knew there would be more to come. I'm looking forward to seeing more irruptive species but I'm a little tired tired of the word irruptive. It makes it sound like the birds are being spewed out of a volcano or something. This has been a nice way to start the winter. Hopefully there will be more good birds heading our way this winter!