Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Loxia leucoptera

This photo was taken a year ago, during the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count. I've had to cancel for this year's Count, being held today, because of feeling dizzy, which is very annoying. Hope the three friends in my group have a successful, enjoyable day! It involves a whole day of walking, unlike most of the Counts I usually go on. This photo of a male White-winged Crossbill was taken on last year's Count - this male was so beautiful with a mix of dark pink, light pink and yellow mixed in with the dark brown and white plumage. The second bird is either a female or a juvenile. Several of these birds had flown down to the road and were hanging out on a few lumps of very dirty snow. Not the most attractive setting, but at least I managed to get a few photos of the birds. On last year's Count, we did SO much walking, starting at 8:00 am, getting home around 4:00 p.m., and then I was out all evening at the potluck supper held for the many participants who covered various parts of the city. Our first stop was at a place with a great view looking out over downtown Calgary. The sunrise colours were beautiful and the whole day gave us good weather. The Calgary Tower, which used to be the tallest building downtown, is now dwarfed by others. At this time of the year, the tower has Christmas coloured lights around the top section. From this location, we then spent the day driving short distances and then walking round the various residential streets. There were so many White-winged Crossbills! "A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Crossbill/id The total overall number of species seen for the whole city last year was really good, though we haven't yet had the finalized number. The group of 4 of us that covered part of the NE had 24 species, which was also very good. Will add our small group's list in a comment box below.

A week ago, on 20 December 2015, I had a really long day out with three friends, taking part in the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count. We did SO much walking, starting at 8:00 am, getting home around 4:00 p.m., and then I was out all evening at the potluck supper held for the many participants who covered various parts of the city. Our first stop was at a place with a great view looking out over downtown Calgary. The sunrise colours were beautiful and the whole day gave us good weather. The Calgary Tower, which used to be the tallest building downtown, is now dwarfed by others. At tthis time of the year, it has Christmas coloured lights around the top section. From this location, we then spent the day driving short distances and then walking round the various residential streets. There were so many White-winged Crossbills! The bird in this photo is a female - the males are red. "A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Crossbill/id The total overall number of species seen for the whole city this year was really good, though we haven't yet had the finalized number. The group of 4 of us that covered part of the NE had 24 species, which was also very good. Will add our small group's list below. Species 24: Canada Goose 200+ Mallard 100+ Raven 11 American Crow 4 Magpie 86 Rock Pigeon 38 Starling 2 Bald Eagle 1 Merlin 3 Downy Woodpecker 3 Northern Flicker 21 Blue Jay 2 American Robin 3 White-winged Crossbill 340 Red Crossbill 24 House Finch 134 Black-capped Chickadee 26 Red-breasted Nuthatch 18 White-breasted Nuthatch 1 Common Redpoll 21 Dark-eyed Junco 5 Golden-crowned Kinglet 2 House Sparrow 750 Eurasian Collared Dove 63 Tony T.

It almost looks like this male White-winged Crossbill has a red feather sticking out from the top of its head, but it's just a bit of disgarded husk from one of the many seeds it had been eating from the cones. You can really see the crossed tips of its beak in this photo. On 16 November 2015, it would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was just about visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, hence a zoomed and cropped image. “A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place.” From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-winged_crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

On 16 November 2015, it would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was just about visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, hence a zoomed and cropped image. “A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place.” From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-winged_crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

Nine days ago, on 16 November 2015, it would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was just about visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, hence a zoomed and cropped image. “A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place.” From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-winged_crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

Yesterday, 16 November 2015, would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was just about visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, hence a zoomed and cropped image. “A medium-sized finch of the boreal forest, the White-winged Crossbill is adapted for extracting seeds from the cones of coniferous trees. It moves large distances between years tracking the cone crop from place to place.” From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-winged_crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

At least 10 of these beautiful White-winged Crossbills flew into a Spruce tree laden with cones, when we were in the parking lot at Carburn Park yesterday, 31 January 2013. The males are such a beautiful red. Mixed in with them were at least 10 of the less common Red Crossbills. These birds are always so far away, that I can't really tell if I'm photographing a White-winged or a Red Crossbill until I check my images. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-winged_Crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill

Finally, a bird photo! Several of these colourful birds were down on the ground in the parking lot at West Bragg Creek, on 25 August 2012, when a group of us were getting ready to head out on one of the trails to look for mushrooms. Full zoom and lots of cropping as they were large specks half way across the parking lot, but I rarely get to see these Crossbills. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-winged_crossbill/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-barred_Crossbill

Unfortunately, this bird has its bill open, so the overlapped ("crossed") bill isn't obvious. It looks very awkward to have an open and lower bill that don't meet together, but this design is for opening Spruce seeds from the cones. The flock of Crossbills that I saw today was in a couple of Spruce trees, working frantically at removing as many seeds in as short a time as possible. This was the first time that I had seen what these birds look like. Wasn't able to get any decent photos (wretched grasses or too high up in the tree!) but I'll post what I do have. I was amazed at how beautifully coloured these birds are. A much more vivid red than the drawing in my bird book!