white-winged crossbills

[soehnelj]

Chip,

I must've been reading your mind as I've been tracking the number of
lower peninsula counties that have had wwcr, also.  My list is at work
but have been surprised how big of an irruption this has been.  The
Saginaw Bay Area (SBA) can add Bay, Huron, Iosco, Midland, and Saginaw
counties.  Not only have they been seen in these locales, their
numbers are impressive as well.  I've consistently had good numbers at
the New St. Patrick Cemetery on Ridge Rd that included the highest
count of 68.  To put that into perspective, the previous SBA wwcr high
count was six at Harbor Beach in 1974.  I've been to St. Pat's
cemetery at least a half dozen times and have seen a minimum of eight
every time I've gone there.  I can only imagine the total number of
wwcr that have irrrupted into the lower peninsula this winter.

Good wwcr-ing,

Joe Soehnel
http://www.saginawbaybirding.org


On 1/17/09, Francke <francke at charter.net> wrote:
> Birders,
>
> I am trying to compile a list of all the Michigan counties where
> white-winged crossbills have been seen during the winter seasonal survey
> period (12/1/08 through 2/28/09).  I plan to include the date of the first
> report and name of the observer for each county.  Just interested in seeing
> how many counties we can include for this invasion.
>
> I have included a preliminary list (without dates/observers) that I have
> gleaned from mich-listers postings.  If you can add others, please send the
> info. to me. I assume wwc are present in all UP counties, and that people
> are not reporting them because of that.  If you have any UP records, please
> send them along.
>
> What I would really like to do is have a MI county map that I could
> highlight each county where WWC have been seen.  Anyone know of an easy way
> to do this?
>
> Allegan, Berrien, Chippewa, Clinton, Easton, Genessee, Ingham, Isabella,
> Jackson, Kalamazoo, Kent, Lapeer, Livingston, Muskegon, Oakland, Oscoda,
> Ottawa, St.Clair, Sanilac, Shiawassee, Tuscola, Washtenaw, Wayne
>
> (32% of LP counties have had crossbills reports - how high can we get?)
>
> Chip Francke
> francke at charter.net