Sometimes the Mountain comes to you

Common Crossbill in flight

The last day of 2011 proved to be absolutely amazing.  At sunrise this morning, around 10 am I was waiting for the bus, when a flock of birds swooped in out of nowhere.  As I was asking myself, oh my god what is that bird, and breaking out my camera, the birds settled on a tall pine not twenty feet from me.  I had literally no time to adjust the camera's settings, the wind was gusting and icy cold, but I wasn't going to miss this opportunity, even if it meant missing that bus.

Two males

When I realized I had another lifer, I started chanting- awesome, this is so awesome- as my shutter was clicking away.  Who could blame me, when I had just been wishing I could travel with the purpose of birding, and knew that isn't possible at this time.  I'm sure this has happened to you a time or two, but if it hasn't, I sincerely hope that is does.  There is an old saying that goes something like this: If Mohammed can't go to the Mountain, the Mountain will come to Mohammed.

Common Crossbill - female

Common Crossbill-male

I'm a firm believer that this is true, even though my name isn't Mohammed.  Anyway I felt so good about this encounter, that I went for one last outing later in the day.  I hope your last day of 2011 was a great as mine.

Happy New Year,
Susan