Red crossbills are in the birding news
- Michelle Wood: SWCD
- November 5, 2017
- 1158
The two species of crossbills are always a delight to see in our part of the world. Most of the time they stay far to the north; however, some years they move south in large numbers. This year red crossbills have been showing up over a wide area.
Large numbers have passed through the northern states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, plus further east into New York and New England. A one-day count of more than 1,300 was made along Lake Superior last week, and at Whitefish Point in Michigan, birders counted over 100 on Oct. 29.
Red crossbills are found across much of the northern reaches of North America as well in Scandinavia and Europe. There are some records all the way across Asia as well. Here in the United States they also are resident in the mountains of the west and Appalachia.
The crossbills of the western mountains are moving east with records last week in Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Missouri while the birds north of us are making their way south.
It seems to be a record year for cone production here. I don’t know if there is a connection, but we have never seen so many walnuts in our yard as this fall. They have literally blanketed the ground. Evidently many of the evergreens also are producing bumper crops.
I drove up to Indiana Dunes State Park on Oct. 31. This park is located along the shore of Lake Michigan, and birders there have been seeing flocks of red crossbills for several days. Up to 65 were seen at times over the weekend.
A large parking lot at the park entrance has lots of white pines on all four sides of the open area. The pines are loaded with cones, and I soon heard red crossbills flying from one tree to another. Most of the time it was small flocks of three to 10, although at one point 22 flew over my head. They didn’t stay in one place very long but kept moving around the area.
In the past there have been some red crossbill movements into Ohio, but it is not very common. I remember seeing a flock of very tame red crossbills at a cemetery on the north side of Toledo.
Kent Miller reports that his first birding memory is being at Secrest Arboretum in Wooster with his dad, Jim Miller, on Nov. 3, 1969. (Kent was 4.) They saw around 100 red crossbills working the white cedars at the south end of the arboretum.
In 2012 birders reported seeing red crossbills in Wayne County and Holmes County. Gary Cowell and Anna Wittmer found some at Mohican State Park on Jan. 5, 2013. There have been other Mohican sightings as well.
Red crossbills will fly across large bodies of water. During the crossbill invasion of 1972, David Tan remembers seeing a flock circling their boat 15 miles off Atlantic City while he was on a pelagic birding trip. Red crossbills also have shown up in Iceland.
This would be a great time to check trees with cones. You may find crossbills in your backyard.
Good birding!
Contact Bruce Glick at Birderbruce@yahoo.com or 330-317-7798.