Great Birds on a Sad Trip

When I picked up the phone last Tuesday (the 7th), I could tell by the tone of my mother's voice that she was not the bearer of good news.  When she told me that her mother had passed away, I was very sad.  I had not seen my grandmother in nearly 5 years, and my wife of a year-and-a-half had never met her.  I knew that I wanted to go to Iowa for the funeral.
The trail to Sioux Center, Iowa happened to bring us directly to an area that has hosted a Common Crane for the past few weeks.  The crane has not been a sure thing for anyone venturing for it, but I couldn't pass it up.  Thankfully, my wife was willing to set aside some time to search for the bird.  On the way out there, however, the bird was nowhere to be found.  The wind was cold, the Sandhills many, and the bird got the best of me.
While in Sioux Center, we wanted to head to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to register at Babies R Us.  Luckily, this store was only 15 minutes from a cemetery that has been hosting flocks of Red and White-winged Crossbills and, occasionally, Common Redpolls.  Most likely, I will not have another decent shot at these birds this year, so I wanted to make a quick stop.  My wife and I were lucky enough to get some great views of a flock of ~20 Red Crossbills (we were literally right under them for a few minutes).  I also got a look at 3 White-winged Crossbills that flew from a spruce when the flock of Reds came to the same tree.  This was only the 2nd time I've seen Red Crossbills and the 3rd time I've seen White-winged Crossbills.  Unfortunately, I did not see any redpolls.  I also happened to glance an owl resting in a tree.

 A Great-horned waiting for night to come

 "What are you looking at?"

 One of the few times the bird lifted its head

 Here's a nice look at how the birds get their name.

 The rewards of having those funky bills

 This is how the birds looked 95% of the time.

 Check out that rump!

 Some more rewards

 This photo is not cropped.

A pretty pair

The best bird of the trip was going to have to wait for the end of the trip.  After the funeral and spending some awesome time with family, Tiff and I headed back on Sunday.  Tiff was gracious enough to let me try for the crane again.  In the end, I ended up finding the bird (with its head tucked at first) right before we were going to take off.  I got some killer scope looks from about 150 yards.  It was an awesome bird, my first ABA code 4.