Birding weekend wrap up from the first week of 2009

As if there was any doubt, winter is full upon us here in New England. I've already posted a bit about the first few days of the year - birding in sub-zero temps (incl wind chill) on the first day of the new year, then getting a life bird on the third - so I won't repeat it here.

On Sunday, determined to add some numbers to my new year list, I headed out early in search of some of the White-winged Crossbills that seem to be popping up everywhere. It was a beautiful day and I had a feeling that the birding was going to be good. After a short amount of time, I was successful in that I had a flock of about 20 birds fly out from the tops of some evergreens where they had been reported seen on the previous day. The flock split up, and I was able to get good looks at a few high in the trees - but no photo opportunities there. I also managed to pick-up a few other more common birds for the year list - Golden-crowned Kinglets, Tufted Titmouse, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpeckers, etc. Also had a Red-bellied Woodpecker (which seem to be more and more common here) churring from the woods. Disappointed that I hadn't been able to get any good pics, I wanted to find more. I picked up Pamela at home (let her sleep in this Sunday) and we headed north to Salisbury MA, where the crossbills had been reported in the pines in the state reservation (across from Newburyport) which are pretty low, providing great looks for any birds that happen to land there. Last year we had excellent looks at Red Crossbills in the same place. This is also where I had my 'life' Long-eared Owl a few years back. The only reason why I mention this is that because when we arrived, we came across our friends Laura & Mark, and they'd heard that one had been seen earlier in the day, but we (nor anybody else) were able to re-locate. We did have a nice flock of 14 Lapland Longspurs, which is a little unusual around here. We usually only get one or two mixed in with flocks of Horned Larks or Snow Buntings. They were pretty cooperative and I got some pretty good shots of them:

Eventually we did manage to find a few White-winged Crossbills, and although we had nice looks we did not see anywhere near the numbers seen earlier in the day, nor did we see any adult males.

There was one immature male that had just started developing some hints of the pinkish-red that he'll be sporting as a full adult...
Unfortunately after that, and even though it was a beautiful day, we had to call it quits as I needed to head home, shower and go to work. Oh well - at least it was nice while it lasted!