Thursday, November 27, 2008

Grosbeaks , Crossbills & Finches

One of my favorite places to go birding in town is President Murray Park. This two block long park is full of spruce trees and can be rewarding at any time of the year.
In late fall/early winter the park might be frequented by both species of Crossbills , Brown Creeper, Golden-crowned Kinglet and the occasional Pine or Evening Grosbeak.
I still have not managed to locate a single Brown Creeper at all this season.
On the day I found the Varied Thrush, I also spent about 2 hours looking in this park and then some of the adjacent back alleyways and found a lone Pine Grosbeak, feeding in the same yard as some Blue Jays and a Red-breasted Nuthatch.
I'm glad I had my trusty flash with me, as these photos would not have turned out at all. It was quite dark and shady in this particular alley...

Pine Grosbeak





White-winged Crossbill - this is about as close as you are going to get with this species, unless you are lucky enough to have them visit your feeder :



This male House Finch was also close by :



And so was this Red-breasted Nuthatch :

10 comments:

Mike said...

Stunning, I really need to be getting out more.

Nick S said...

Thanks Mike. I went out today and took literally 3 shots, neither of them I'm happy with him. That's birding for ya !

kjpweb said...

Gorgeous!
(Only 3 shots and none of them ok. Hmmh. But you were out! That counts for good behavior!

Nick S said...

Yes, at least I got to go out. It was a nice day too :-) Cheers Klaus !

John Theberge said...

Great shots, it's cool you have a nice park close by that attracts a lot of birds. I'm still waiting for the birds to show up at my feeder, I guess there's plenty of natural food out there for them so they don't need the seeds.

Nick S said...

Thanks guys. Yes, we have had an amazingly mild season here so far.. and there are still many berries left on the trees for food for our birds.

Chris said...

Hi Nick.... Looks like a nice moment you had there... Very nice pictures of some cute birds... Need to check what lens and camera you are using!!! I'll come back, I liked your blog very much

Shelley said...

That male housefinch was just perfect - his colors, his feathers - did he just take a bath? LOL! All lovely.

2sweetnsaxy said...

Beautiful. I wish I saw this many birds when I was out. I'm lucky if I get one and can get it in focus before it flies off.
:-D

Unknown said...

Beautiful series of images Nick. The House Finch is my pick in this series