Quest for Crossbills with JC Birding

 February 6, 2024

Birding Report by Jane Burgess

I met Bill and Barbara at their place and we drove to Clayton and drove the dead end roads.  Barbara said I see a little bird, Bill backed up, we couldn't see it, then it flew to the road -- Red Crossbill -- one of our target birds.  Then we saw Pine Siskins (another target bird) and Bill saw a single Common Redpoll.  Great first stop.  Over the course of the day and many dead end roads (check out the map), we were fortunate to see Crossbills and Siskins.  Great.  Later in the evening Bill texted me to say we also saw a Purple Finch, I saw we because I have the same bird in a photograph.

Towards the end of our birding day, the  count of bird species was at 6, then we stopped for 3 Dark-eyed Juncos. 

We turned on Bernie's Corners and Bill said is that a Robin? yep.  We stopped to photograph the Robins and were sooo lucky, there were two Eastern Bluebirds.

Species Noted

1. Red Crossbill
2. Pine Siskin
3. Common Redpoll
4. Purple Finch
5. Blue Jay
6. American Crow
7. European Starling
8. Dark-eyed Junco
9. American Robin
10. Eastern Bluebird