Beautiful Morning - Lyon's City Park

Jeanette's request of Lyon's City Park for our today's birding location proved to be an excelent one.  We had bright skies and perfect fall temperatures to enjoy this favorite of ours. This first bird we spotted in the parking lot was a real stumper.  A nondescript brown bird with a yellow stripe on it's back.  Before I noticed the yellow stripe, I wanted to make it a female House Finch, but with the yellow I was trying to convince myself of a Yellow-rumped Warbler.  Jeanette spotted the red male and was thinking a House Finch or a Purple Finch.  After zooming in close with a couple of photos I realized we had a pair of Crossbills.  The insect I thought was in the bill turned out to be the crossed bill, but wait -- if you click on the image below and look close enough there does appear to be an ant on the lower mandible. We had a great morning, you can see our complete observation list here.