White-winged Crossbills... it is almost April, correct?

A huge gigantic shout out and Thank You to Kevin Rysiewski for calling me today when he looked out into his back yard and saw that there was a flock of White-winged Crossbills in the pines behind his home... I happened to be in Washington Twp at the time and headed that way.... as luck would have it, the rain/hail/sleet mix began as I moved toward Shelby Township (25mi and Shelby area).... I have never been in Kevin's sub before, but I figured that I would be able to locate the birds.... Kevin had last seen them heading north.... As I got to the sub, I realized that they should have named it Pine Valley.... it was gonna be like finding a needle in a Haystack.... it took me about 20 minutes of driving in the pouring rain, looking at the top of pines, before I found them.... a flock of birds descended from the sky and landed in the pines in front of my car.... by the time I got my binoculars out, they were feeding on the ground underneath the pines.... I scrambled for my camera, and wondered to myself, how am I going to photograph White-winged Crossbills (112) in the pouring rain with dark skies?... ISO 1600 and exposure compensation... that's how... I wanted to document my first time Macomb County sighting....  I called Tom Heatley and he met me in the sub and we found them again next door to where I first found them.... the rain had stopped, and I got a couple more pics before they took off....   Nice start to the weekend.... click to enlarge