WWCB note

Tue Feb 3 13:07:43 EST 2009

Russ,

A homeowner in Livingston County who had White-winged Crossbills at her 
feeder in 2002 told me that they were feeding on thistle.

Allen T. Chartier
amazilia1 at comcast.net
Inkster, Michigan, USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Website: www.amazilia.net
HummerNet: www.amazilia.net/MIHummerNet
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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: "Russell Emmons" <birdeland at pasty.net>
To: <mich-chat at envirolink.org>
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 2:26 PM
Subject: Re: WWCB note

> 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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>>>
>>
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>
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