After reading a good reminder that this crossbill irruption we are experiencing now probably won’t happen for years, I decided I would finally try to actually photograph some. It was pretty easy finding a feeding flock along Golf Rd at Lancaster County Central Park. The light made it a little difficult to get good shots but some did come out alright. The most interesting sighting was a young male with a lot of orangey color. I have seen a few very bright yellow crossbills, but none with this orange color. People have been reporting less White-winged Crossbills in the last and some have speculated that they have started heading north. This may be true but the last two places I have checked are still hopping with crossbills.

A trip up and down along the Susquehanna River was pretty boring today. All the ice has melted and any lingering ducks seem to have taken off. There was a large number of Ring-billed Gulls with a few Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls as well as two Lesser Black-backed Gulls. The highlight was two Red-necked Grebes that have been seen at Wrightsville, PA for a while now. I forgot my digiscoping adapter so I was stuck hand-holding the camera which was a lot harder than I remembered, especially for a bird that dove every time that I focused on it.  non-breeding Red-necked Grebe Red-necked Grebes breed in the upper Great Plains and western Canada and then migrate to either the Pacific or Atlantic coast for the winter. They also winter on the Great Lakes and when these freeze up the grebes often show up in lakes and rivers inland.