Hi all, Steve Rissing has a pair of RED CROSSBILLS coming to his backyard feeders in Dublin, OH. Today I managed to record a few flight calls, which suggest they are type 3 Red Crossbills -- the most common type being reported in the eastern U.S. this winter. Type 3s typically spend the breeding season in the Pacific Northwest (from Oregon up into Alaska) and are considered Western Hemlock specialists (though they can clearly get by with a range of other conifers!). Photos of the female and some audio of their relatively high pitched, snappy calls can be found at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S13243757 Steve is fine to have people come by on Sunday, so long as they respect a few ground rules. I'll post a follow-up if there will be any viewing opportunities during the week. Steve asks that visitors park on the street and walk up the driveway to the back corner of the house. There's no need to alert the Rissings to your presence. He'll likely have some chairs at the top of the driveway with a clip-board and pencil so that he (and others) can leave any relevant information, like when they were last seen. If you round the corner much at all, you will spook the birds at the feeders, so please use the corner of the house as a blind and do not enter the back yard. This will ensure minimal disturbance for the birds, and for their mammalian hosts. ;-) The crossbills have been using almost exclusively the red-topped, plastic tube feeder on the pole with a light blue 8" PVC pipe raccoon deterrent. Steve will try to have the feeders full by 9:00am, so it's probably not worth getting there much earlier than that. Morning seems better than afternoon. *Directions*: Take Dublin Rd. north past 270 and turn left on Windwood Drive, then right on Rushwood Dr. His address is 5735 Rushwood Dr. Good birding, Paul Hurtado Columbus, OH <http://people.mbi.ohio-state.edu/hurtado.10> ______________________________________________________________________ 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]