Sunday, January 20, 2013

This Is More Like It !



Hubby made it upstairs with his new knee.   It was the siren call of his flight simulator that got him to the top of those steep steps.  I thought I heard him calling.  Raced to the bottom of the stairs.  "There's a bird outside my window with a red head," says he.

"Groan." says I.  Plod up the stairs to see what I know will be a Cardinal, a House Finch, a Red-bellied Woodpecker . . .

But waaaait . . . something's wrong with this bird.   A leucistic finch?  No.  There's more than one.
Holy Kamoly.  Grab the smelling salts!  My first White-winged Crossbills - Evah !

Thank you dear hubby.

AND.   In googling images of Crossbills . . . ended up on this unbelievable Flicker River of Indiana bird photography.   It goes forever . . . just like the perfect dream should . . . during the heart of January.


It's the Indiana Audubon Society's Bird Gallery and Archive
(That's a clickable link)

Update:  Did want to mention that after failing to get a pix of them in the tree limbs .. . they dropped into my birdbath . . whence . . . voila ! ^



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8 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

Congrats to Hubby for his progress - and to you for identifying the birds. That's pretty cool!

Stephen said...

I've never seen one, but then again I seldom look in the right places...

Cathy said...

Thank you, Rev. Paul :)
It's good to have good news.


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Well, Stephen . . seems these particular birds only come our direction when there's a seed crop failure in MI.

Larry said...

Wow! I can only imagine how excited I would be to have crossbills show up in my yard! Great photo too!

Cathy said...

Well, Larry . . . it was a very lucky shot on the run.

These birds were here maybe 10 minutes . . than 'poof' . . !

threecollie said...

Glad to hear that Keith is doing well and congratulations on the cross bills! An amazingly delight, which you truly deserve.

troutbirder said...

We've have numbers of rare Canadian birds visiting even southern Minnesota this winter during an "irruption" year. Including crossbills in my yard for only the second time in thirty years.... Yeah!

Cathy said...

Thanks Marianne . . . we're doing sooo much better here. Sure no way near normal, but (cross fingers), I think the worst is behind us.

And truly, I can't believe our luck with the crossbills.

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Troutbirder . . .it was so awesome . . and you've got 'em too! What a great gift :)