Hi Bill, Ohio Birders:

There is indeed a heck of an irruption of crossbills going on right now.
It looks like there has been a major cone-crop failure in most of the west,
and as a result crossbills are exploding out of the Rockies (Cassin's
Finches, and Pine Siskins, too) in huge numbers.  One of Lake Superior's
premier migrant traps had 1300 Red Crossbills in one day last week.  This
is coupled with an apparently historic crop of white, red, and Norway
Spruce cones in the east, in which at least 2 flight call types (1 and 10)
bred in big numbers in New Hampshire, New York, Maine, and Ontario.  It is
crazy out there!

I can verify crossbills will move over water--there are records from
Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket, and even Iceland (!).  Yesterday at least a
hundred moved past Whitefish Point in Michigan, which may or may not be
birds that crossed (much) open water to get there.

For more information on crossbills, including explantations of the various
'flight call types', interested observers may read this article:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/crossbills-of-north-america-species-and-red-crossbill-call-types/


It would be great to document crossbills in Ohio with recordings when
possible.  I am happy to help anyone with this.  Feel free to drop a note
privately.

good birding!

Tim Spahr


On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 10:00 AM, Bill Whan <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> Observers in the mid-western states are reporting larger-than-usual
> incursions of white-winged crossbills and fewer red crossbills from
> Indiana to Oklahoma recently. Thus far I haven't heard anything about
> crossbills in Ohio at the same latitude. These birds are readily found
> if they're around, so I imagine we'll be getting our customary trickle
> soon, perhaps more. Maybe we should blame Lake Erie.
>        Is there any work that shows that crossbills are not happy about
> crossing large bodies of water when they move south? On occasions I have
> seen a few exhausted and scraggy-looking crossbills along Lake Erie
> beaches, and more regularly inland (I've seen decent numbers several
> times in Columbus, and recall having them within arm's length in
> hemlocks off the deck in my back yard). I don't recall often seeing
> mixed-species flocks in Ohio. As winter moves on this year, it might be
> well worth being alert for them; the most productive habitats have been
> conifers in large old cemeteries.
> Bill Whan
> Columbus
>
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