Hey Bill, Ohio Birders:

It seems to me there's been a pretty good showing of crossbills so far in
the area--a check of eBird maps will show this year is anomalous.  The
invasion out into the plains states really has been spectacular; further
north even our Illinois friend could note that Wisconsin is overflowing
with crossbills right now, including a heavy dose of western flight call
Types 2 and 4.  I'll note western Types 2, 3, and even 4 (!) ( and Type 10)
are around in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, etc, with a good bunch
of birds up in Ontario per usual this time of year.

As for the crossbills and water, there's no evidence that they *don't* fly
over water as they have been seen in numbers on Martha's Vineyard, Monhegan
Island, and Nantucket.  I suspect what happened this year is that the birds
simply overflew areas with a poor cone crop.  White pines drop their seeds
under normal conditions around this time of year, and the other hard-coned
pines are tough to open in winter.  Perhaps our crafty crossbill friends
found all those red and white spruces just to your north, and are happily
chowing down.

Winter isn't over yet, and crossbills will continue to move in search of
food all through the year.  I'd say keeping an eye on your red and pitch
pine groves towards springtime isn't a bad idea.

Lastly, Bill, what does a good year for crossbills look like in Ohio?  You
are definitely the reference expert (lore master!) on the listserve.

Happy Holidays to all!

Best,

Tim Spahr


On Sun, Dec 24, 2017 at 11:11 AM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Not long ago rumors of movements of crossbills were being passed around,
> but (see  [log in to unmask] [ILbirds]* ) it seems
> we likely won't be seeing them much this season; they usually aren't
> found in Ohio until November/December and later even in a good year, and
> even when lots show up in northern states, we seldom see big numbers,
> and I wonder if crossing open stretches of the Great Lakes is maybe
> asking too much of these forest species (red crossbills do breed down in
> Panama but seem to be strictly western birds without the barrier of
> great lakes in the way).  Always fun to see, but don't hold your breath...
> Bill Whan
>
> *I don't trust that URL to work, so if it doesn't work find his post at
> http://birding.aba.org/maillist/IL
>
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