Yesterday we had a chance to head over to Hammonasset State Park to get some images of the Crossbills. Crossbills are not commonly found around here, but are much more common in the northern states and Canada. They tend to wander erratically in search of food, which is mainly made up of cones of pines. They usually pry the seed out of the cones with their unique crossed bill tip.


At the West Beach area of Hammonasset there are many Japanese Black Pines that the Crossbills seemed to know about. In fact this was their intended source of food. It was fascinating to watch and hear them cracking the seeds out of the pine cones. When a flock of 20 of these birds are in a tree eating away you can hear them easier then you can see them.


It was a fairly warm day yesterday and Gary and I spent about 5 hours or so photographing these birds, we once again ran in to Paul Fusco and a few other photographers with big glass. Many birders also stopped by to get a look at these rare birds.

Here are just a few of the shots.

This winter has brought an influx of Pine Grosbeaks to the Norfolk Connecticut area. Since this is about an hour drive from where I live I decided to check it out. Pine Grosbeaks are pretty rare in these parts, they prefer to spend their time up north, much further north of Connecticut. Mostly found in Northern Maine and Canada. So this was probably a once in a lifetime event. Gary and I made two trips up there and here are some of the shots I took away with me. It was a great day and we got to spend some time with Kevin Karlson and Paul Fusco.