White-winged Crossbill - Bec-croisé bifascié
In February of this year, before the pandemic changed behaviours and made birding trips impossible, I went on a solo jaunt for a couple of nights in Algonquin Park. It was mostly sunny, very cold, almost perfect weather for winter birding and bird photography.
This was one of my most exciting finds. The main highway that runs through the Park is a winding small road, frankly, but a road on which one can find many bird species and the occasional moose. But the shoulders are narrow and the corners often tricky, and so stopping is often dangerous.
So one is left with the small parking lots to trails that are unplowed in the winter. Snowshoes are super handy. And there were regular birding reports (when they were encouraging visits pre-pandemic) to give you a sense of where there might be birds to find.
This find was a fluke, as they often are. There had been reports that small flocks were visiting the parking lot of the Park’s Visitors Centre. There were a few there, but they were high up in the trees looking for cones or down on the ground eating the dirt/grit that was spread on the ground in the parking lot to help cars manage the snow. Crossbills eat the grit, drawing them to some unpleasant photo opportunities like parking lots, to aid their digestion of cones.
I noticed some birds flying behind the Visitors Centre along a line of tall pines. So I marched down the somewhat treacherous path along the side of the Centre, which is built upon a lookout. As I went down the side of the building, I saw the birds: dirt had been spread down below for the maintenance people in the Centre, and the birds were happier eating their grit there, without the cars in the parking lot.
This bird, a younger and somewhat timid creature, was waiting his turn, watching for an opening in the group of birds on the ground. He was perfectly perched for a photograph, and a light snow was starting to fall, making it a great Algonquin birding moment.
White-winged Crossbill - Bec-croisé bifascié
In February of this year, before the pandemic changed behaviours and made birding trips impossible, I went on a solo jaunt for a couple of nights in Algonquin Park. It was mostly sunny, very cold, almost perfect weather for winter birding and bird photography.
This was one of my most exciting finds. The main highway that runs through the Park is a winding small road, frankly, but a road on which one can find many bird species and the occasional moose. But the shoulders are narrow and the corners often tricky, and so stopping is often dangerous.
So one is left with the small parking lots to trails that are unplowed in the winter. Snowshoes are super handy. And there were regular birding reports (when they were encouraging visits pre-pandemic) to give you a sense of where there might be birds to find.
This find was a fluke, as they often are. There had been reports that small flocks were visiting the parking lot of the Park’s Visitors Centre. There were a few there, but they were high up in the trees looking for cones or down on the ground eating the dirt/grit that was spread on the ground in the parking lot to help cars manage the snow. Crossbills eat the grit, drawing them to some unpleasant photo opportunities like parking lots, to aid their digestion of cones.
I noticed some birds flying behind the Visitors Centre along a line of tall pines. So I marched down the somewhat treacherous path along the side of the Centre, which is built upon a lookout. As I went down the side of the building, I saw the birds: dirt had been spread down below for the maintenance people in the Centre, and the birds were happier eating their grit there, without the cars in the parking lot.
This bird, a younger and somewhat timid creature, was waiting his turn, watching for an opening in the group of birds on the ground. He was perfectly perched for a photograph, and a light snow was starting to fall, making it a great Algonquin birding moment.