WWCB note

[Russell Emmons]

I'm wondering when WW Crossbills do come to feeders what in particular food 
will they partake of if it is known?

Russ Emmons, St. Clair county


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Allen T. Chartier" <amazilia1 at comcast.net>
To: <mich-chat at envirolink.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 1:24 PM
Subject: Re: WWCB note


> Carl,
>
> I have photos of White-winged Crossbills taken in Rouge Park, Detroit in
> February 1981, and from Westcroft Gardens, Grosse Ile in January 1998. I
> also know that between these two dates, WWCR were found in at least a two 
> or
> three other years at Westcroft. It isn't that these birds are present in 
> the
> southernmost counties of the state that is most remarkable. It is how
> widespread they are, seemingly findable nearly everywhere birders look for
> them, as well as many very unexpected urban and suburban locales. This is
> why I'm encouraging reports to continue from counties where already
> reported, as well as encouraging counts or estimates of numbers to be
> reported, so that we can fully document the magnitude of this winter's
> irruption.
>
> One more point on the food issue, the birds in my 1981 photos at Rouge 
> Park
> seem to be feeding on small cones of Tamarack (no greenery in the photos,
> just bare branches with small cones). And the birds in my 1998 photos at
> Westcroft Gardens appear to be feeding on small cones of Hemlock (lots of
> yew-like greenery in the photos).
>
> Also, in my previous post about the crossbills at the Tyler Street 
> Cemetery,
> Wayne Co., I may have mis-stated that the birds there were feeding on 
> pines.
> There are sevral conifers there, including spruces and Douglas-fir (thanks
> to Robert Epstein for pointing this out). I have seen the birds feeding in
> most of the conifers that have cones, but I'll have to go back to verify
> whether there are any pines (there might not be).
>
> In some previous years, I've heard of these crossbills visiting feeders, 
> but
> so far this winter those reports have been very few. Out of nearly 450
> reports from 79 counties (so far), only about 3 reports of them visiting
> feeders has been received, and in all cases it has been a single 
> individual.
> Are feeders an even more desperate option for crossbills?
>
> Allen T. Chartier
> amazilia1 at comcast.net
> Inkster, Michigan, USA
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Website: www.amazilia.net
> HummerNet: www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet
> Blog: http://mihummingbirdguy.blogspot.com
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Every day, the hummingbird eats its own weight in food.
> You may wonder how it weighs the food.
> It doesn't. It just eats another hummingbird.
> -- Steven Wright
> =========================================
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Freeman Family" <heather at benzie.com>
> To: <mich-chat at envirolink.org>
> Sent: Sunday, February 01, 2009 11:15 AM
> Subject: WWCB note
>
>
>> All the WWCB notes are fascinating. It would make sense to me that
>> the birds would make use of a variety of food sources to get
>> different nutrients.  The obs of Brian Allen of them going to the
>> bank goes along with their getting grit - salt? from the roads. In a
>> "blast from the past" I grew up in Ann Arbor and local audubon
>> meetings then were held in a room in the natural history museum and I
>> remember (and time has probably morphed this somehow, late 50's early
>> 6-'s) that Dr Tordoff (one of the orinthology profs) would trap
>> crossbills on the roof to band using salt as bait. This not something
>> that I observed first hand just something filed away in my brain that
>> has become "fact" to me that I thought might be of interest.  It also
>> shows that this irruption into  southern MI is not new.  Carl Freeman
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