All,
I arrived at Greenlawn Cemetery between 1:45 and 2:00 pm. I met at
least three groups of two people searching the northwest part of the
cemetery in Section X. I walked this area for about 45 minutes
listening for crossbill calls and checking all the hemlocks that I could
find. I had no luck as did the other three groups of two that I met.
Because crossbills are quite nomadic, I decided to drive around the
cemetery to look for other possible feeding hemlock trees. I stopped
several places with no success. I went south from Section X and found a
large flock (about 100) of American Goldfinches feeding on sweet gum
fruit/balls. There was at least one Pine Siskin (heard it) in this
group. At the southern point of Section 57, I saw a small flock of
medium sized birds fly across the road, apparently out of a spruce tree
along the right side of the road and into a single isolated hemlock
within Section 57, very near to the southernmost point of this section
and right beside Section 66. This was about 3:00 pm. This tree has a
double trunk half-way up the main trunk. The second trunk is shorter
than the main one. I stopped and scanned the birds and found the
White-winged Crossbills I was seeking. There were four in this small
flock. One showed some pink, and I have recorded this in at least one
of my photos. However, none of them were adult males. The bird with
some pink was an immature bird not an adult. There was another quite
yellow bird that appeared to be an immature male. The other two were
either juvenile or female birds. These birds were completely silent and
feeding mostly inside the tree, but occasionally fed on some outer
branches. After watching them for about 15 minute and attempting some
photos. I drove back to Section X looking for the three groups of two
that I had met, hoping that they too could enjoy these crossbills.
Unfortunately, I did not find them, but did find a man and woman on
foot, who had never seen crossbills before. So, I took them back to the
spot in my van, because it was too hard to describe the spot and how to
get there, and they would probably not have made it in time to find
them. When we arrived at the hemlock tree, the birds were still there.
We enjoyed them until about 4:00 pm. There were still four birds, but
we did not find a bird with significant pink. In general the light was
mostly poor due to cloud cover and occasionally the sun would come out.
Two birds were mostly in the top of the tree for a while, and the other
two were feeding down inside the tree where it was thicker. It was
challenging at times to get a good look, let alone try for photos. The
birds remained silent while the three of us watched them until 4:00 pm,
when I dropped them off at their car parked by the office. While I was
at Greenlawn, I also heard three Yellow-bellied sapsuckers, 1 Hairy
woodpecker, 1 Red-bellied Woodpecker and 1 Northern Flicker. There was
one 1 flyover Cedar Waxwing and a flock of about 25 ring-billed Gulls.
I will try to post any reasonable photos either later tonight or
sometime tomorrow.
Hope that others can also see these birds. There may be other scattered
small groups in the cemetery, if the larger flock of 30 first reported
has scattered into smaller groups.
Jay
Jay G. Lehman
Cincinnati, OH
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