Christmas 2011 at Méribel - French Alps

I spent the last week at Méribel for family holidays, enjoying skiing and snowboarding, between 1800 and 2800m. For birds, the commonest species were nutcracker and common crossbill.
A group of crossbills fed in front of our hotel during a few hours on 24 December, during a very windy snowing day. I managed to get some good pics despite the bad weather.
A young female with pale fringed juvenile wing coverts and new adult-type moulted ones


An adult female, with plain wings


This first-winter male is not full-red (this mix of brown and dark orange is more typical of young males), and has retained its first-generation wing coverts


The first-winter male extracting seeds from a cone


A first-winter female - note that wing coverts are of two generations


A pair, with the male feeding the female - an early start of the breeding season? or only season's greetings :-)


A beautiful adult male, with obvious red rump - a pity the picture is not fully focused


Snowfinches were easy to see at the top of the mountain, where the Pas du Lac ski-lift arrives,




snowfinches were aside alpine choughs at the summits


while an Alpine accentor was in residence at the snack were we stopped every noon.




Merry Christmas!