All,
As promised, I'm writing again to see if folks have any tips on areas with good numbers of crossbills and developing pine cones.
As this year's cone crops develop and last year's crop dwindles, crossbills are currently moving around in large flocks trying to find food. If there are lots of cones in a given area, crossbills will stay put and breed there from ~early/mid July to mid September or so. Me and the birds are looking for areas where there are a lot of green/purple cones on trees (specifically, ponderosa pine). I'm especially looking for areas where there is a good ponderosa cone crop developing that is somewhat near decent tracts of lodgepole pine (lodgepole retains cones for several years, so I'm not worried about finding an area with developing lodgepole cones).
A good example of a hypothetical location would be Rocky Mountain National Park -- it has lots of ponderosa and lodgepole. There are also good numbers of crossbill reports from there right now. Unfortunately, I hiked around the park today and didn't find much in the way of a developing ponderosa cone crop, so I suspect they will mostly leave that area soon.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. The Laramie Range up here is looking somewhat promising, but I'd like to have backup locations if needed.
As always, thanks very much for all the help!
Good birding,
Cody Porter
Laramie, WY
-- As promised, I'm writing again to see if folks have any tips on areas with good numbers of crossbills and developing pine cones.
As this year's cone crops develop and last year's crop dwindles, crossbills are currently moving around in large flocks trying to find food. If there are lots of cones in a given area, crossbills will stay put and breed there from ~early/mid July to mid September or so. Me and the birds are looking for areas where there are a lot of green/purple cones on trees (specifically, ponderosa pine). I'm especially looking for areas where there is a good ponderosa cone crop developing that is somewhat near decent tracts of lodgepole pine (lodgepole retains cones for several years, so I'm not worried about finding an area with developing lodgepole cones).
A good example of a hypothetical location would be Rocky Mountain National Park -- it has lots of ponderosa and lodgepole. There are also good numbers of crossbill reports from there right now. Unfortunately, I hiked around the park today and didn't find much in the way of a developing ponderosa cone crop, so I suspect they will mostly leave that area soon.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated. The Laramie Range up here is looking somewhat promising, but I'd like to have backup locations if needed.
As always, thanks very much for all the help!
Good birding,
Cody Porter
Laramie, WY
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