Hi all,

White-winged Crossbills have made it to the southern limits of our state. John Howard found about 50 birds in two separate flocks in eastern Adams County today. He photographed them foraging on the cones of Virginia pine, which I found interesting. This pine species doesn’t overlap with White-winged Crossbill’s breeding range and probably isn’t a conifer that they routinely come into contact with. Nonetheless, they seem to be able to pop the scales and extract the seeds just fine.

The Hocking Hills – Conkles Hollow, Old Man’s Cave, Cantwell Cliffs, etc – should be a productive place to seek crossbills, as there is an abundance of Eastern hemlock, a preferred tree of the White-winged Crossbill, as well as plenty of Virginia and pitch pine.

Jim

Jim McCormac
Columbus, Ohio
Like Nature? http://jimmccormac.blogspot.com/
Like Birds? http://www.ohiobirds.org/

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]