2 firsts in 1 day

[Loupey]

After weeks trying to track down crossbills and a wintering merlin being reported in my area, I finally found them - in the same afternoon.

It was begining to feel like a wild goose chase (or at least a scavenger hunt) as I would go to the reported sites, find nothing (neither did other people at the same time I was out) only to get reports that they were sighted later that day or on days I was not out.

This weekend I was determined and spent 5 hours on foot in the snow and came up with these. The quality is bad (high level crops) but now that I have the "firsts" out of the way, I hope to concentrate on getting quality images later.

The white-winged crossbills are all the rage right now as I've been told that the last time an irruption occurred this far south was 26 years ago.