Red Crossbills, Red-breasted Nuthatches, Snow Buntings, Etc.

This Fall has been exciting for birders because of an invasion of Red Crossbills, Evening Grosbeaks, and a few other rare Winter species, but the first invasive species to show up in large numbers in McLean County was the Red-breasted Nuthatch. These little birds do show up annually at my feeders, but they usually do not stick around very long. This Fall, Carrie and I have enjoyed having at least three of them, two males and a female, come to our feeders regularly. They seemed to prefer the peanut feeder until I put out some black oil sunflower seed in the bottom of a new feeder. They were the first birds to find this feeder and enjoy its offerings.







While photographing the nuthatches, I could not resist taking a shot of this male Downy Woodpecker in wonderful light.



On November 4, I stopped at Tipton Park, where I found four Mute Swans and a Horned Grebe. I had just finally picked up a Horned Grebe for the year in McLean County at White Oak Park a few days earlier, but it was nice to see this one up close.





The next day I took a couple of photos at my peanut feeder before heading to work. The first is of a female Red-breasted Nuthatch. Notice the female's head is striped gray and white instead of black and white like the male's. The second is a Black-capped Chickadee. Carrie always says of this species, "They're all dressed up and ready for dinner." They do look like they are wearing a tuxedo of sorts.





Later the same day I took one of my clients who loves animals for a drive to the Gridley Wastewater Treatment Ponds, We saw a female Gadwall swimming with a smattering of Cackling and Canada Geese and got great looks at a male Ring-necked Duck.







A couple of days later I was at Evergreen Lake looking for crossbills. Although I did not find any crossbills, I did get some interesting shots of a Wild Turkey perched on the Comlara Park sign.





Later that day, just before dark, I stopped by the sewage ponds at Gridley and saw an interesting little bird by the rocks around one of the ponds. It had a lot of white on the wings when it flew. Could it be a Snow Bunting? Last Winter I had not seen a single Snow Bunting in the county though I had gotten great looks of one at Clinton Lake in November. I had been hoping to get one for my county year list this year. I was finally able to get close enough to this bird for a decent ID shot. It was indeed a Snow Bunting, and these little guys are so beautiful to see either on the ground or in flight. This was species #215 on my McLean County year list.



Here are a couple of better photos of a Snow Bunting I photographed at Clinton Lake last year that do better justice to the beauty of this species.





The following day, on November 8, Carrie and I had a new yard bird--a Fox Sparrow. I took this shot through our dining room window.



Then on the way to work the same day, I spotted this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk in the Fall foliage.



The next morning, I saw McLean County year bird #216--at last, a Bonaparte's Gull. It was the only gull at the sewage ponds at Gridley. The way it was spinning in the water while it was feeding reminded me of the Red-necked Grebes I saw at the same location earlier this year.



As if it had not been a good week for birds already, I decided to drive down to Allerton Park in Piatt County in an attempt to see my lifer Red Crossbills. Travis Mahan had found them there and several other folks had reported seeing them on IBF and ebird. I drove to the row of Hemlock Pines by the entrance road to the 4-H camp. The Hemlocks were fairly easy to find, but I had a hard time finding the crossbills in the long row of trees. I did see them once briefly, but then I lost them. Scott Rose, who works at Allerton pulled up and pointed me in the right direction. He directed me to stand at the speed limit sign and then look up to the left, and there they were, feeding on the small cones. He said they had been feeding in the same couple of trees since he had first seen them there. A little later, Eric Walters showed up with sound recording equipment to use to identify which type of
Red Crossbill they were, but these crossbills were strangely silent. There were at least six Red Crossbills present--three males and three females.









Also, while Eric and I were enjoying the crossbills, a Pileated Woodpecker flew into a nearby tree. I was, however, unable to get any decent photos of this bird.

On November 13, I was finally able to photograph a leucistic female House Sparrow, which I had seen at work for several weeks.



On the way to work a couple of days later, I discovered and photographed this Harlan's Hawk between Airport Rd. and Towanda on old Route 66.



On Saturday, November 17, Wes Kolb and I went birding at Evergreen Lake. We searched for redpolls and Saw-whet Owls with no luck. Afterward, we stopped by Angler's Pond where I photographed a female House Finch, a male House Finch, and a Carolina Wren.







The birding was just as good or better in my yard when I got home, where I had White-throated Sparrow, Carolina Wren, Red-breasted Nuthatch, and the Fox Sparrow had returned.





On Monday, November 19, I stopped at the sewage ponds again on the way to work and found a flock of 12 Snow Buntings beside one of the ponds.