Stafford Forge WMA 3/9--Red Crossbill

I birded Great Bay Blvd with Mike this morning and still had energy left over, so I stopped at Stafford Forge WMA, which is on my way home. I figured to get some walking in. The lake had a variety of waterfowl, and the grassy areas had robins and sparrows, but then, after that, the walk back into the woods was quiet. And for once, quiet was to my advantage.

I usually walk to a road that takes me to a backwater area. Just where I make the turn is a sandy area surrounded by pines. I heard one "jeep" from there and decided to take a look before heading for the water. Then the "jeep" repeated rapidly to "jip, jip, jip," and I had a funny feeling I knew what they were, even though I may go years without hearing them. I held up my phone with the Cornell's Merlin app open and bingo! I was hearing Red Crossbill over head.

Good. 

Then I heard more. Looking up, I saw a small flock fly over me, all calling "Jip, jip, jip." 

Better. 

And unlike most every time I've had crossbills fly over me, these stopped. I could see them in a dead tree directly ahead of me.   

Best.

And, amazingly, they just sat quietly in that tree, for what seemed like a very long time, but was, judging from the time stamps on my photos, about 6 minutes. I guess for an elusive bird like crossbills, that is a very long time. Long enough for me, with my ultra-slow-focusing camera, to get some decent shots of boths males and the yellowish females. My count was 7 crossbills in that tree. 

Bestest. 

And then, my camera battery died. And then, when I looked up again, they were gone. 

I made two recordings of their calls, only one of which I was able to upload to eBird. The other one, which is actually better quality, unfortunately caught me exclaiming an expletive in wonderment at my luck to run into these birds, all because I still needed exercise for the day. 

Male & female