re: [cobirds] A little reflection on Red Crossbills in my two southwest metro area "yards"

I had ONE, and only one, visit of  a pair of red crossbills, in winter, which lasted about one minute, in 11 years of living near Colorado Blvd and Orchard in Centennial Arapahoe County.  I may have missed flyovers.

 

Karl Stecher

Aurora

 

 

 

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From: "David Suddjian" <dsuddjian@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2017 9:34 PM
To: "Colorado Birds" <cobirds@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [cobirds] A little reflection on Red Crossbills in my two southwest metro area "yards"

 

Cobirds has had some mention of possible montane species' movements, including Red Crossbill. I took a look at detections of Red Crossbill I've had at my two "yards" that I have birded continuously since 2014: (1) my immediate home area in Ken Caryl Valley, Jefferson Co, and (2) the grounds of St. Mary Catholic Church along Prince Street in Littleton where I work, Arapahoe Co.

 

Since 2014 I have not noted any irruptive movement of Red Crossbills into the Littleton area or the developed region of the Ken Caryl Valley, although for portions of the 4 year period Type 2 Red Crossbills have been regular in the forests of the foothills west of the developed parts of Ken Caryl Valley. Despite the lack of any noted incursion into the urban area, I have recorded crossbills each year at both sites, and was able to discern the call type for all but one detection.

 

From 2014 to the present, I've recorded Red Crossbills 18 times from my immediate home area, and 16 times from St. Mary. All detections at both locations have been of birds flying over. I have not seen any feeding in conifers at these locations.

 

At my Ken Caryl home all crossbill detections so far have been Type 2, which is the form most frequent in the nearby region of forested foothills. 72% have of the records have been from summer: 4 June to 12 Sept. Records have been of 1-9 individuals.

 

At St. Mary in Littleton - well away from natural forest but in an urban forest - the call types have been more mixed. Of the 16 records there, 9 (56%) were Type 2, 6 (38%) were Type 5, and one (6%) was Type 4. Records were concentrated later in the year than at Ken Caryl, with 75% of those from Littleton from fall: 28 Aug to 7 Dec. Records have been of 1-6 individuals, except for a flock of 16.

 

Taking both locations together, spring records have been few, summer and fall have produced the most records, and I have not yet recorded any Red Crossbills during the winter. No records so far from these two sites for Dec 7 to Mar 14. All the records have been fly-overs, more or less random within those seasonal patterns. 

 

My experience at these "yards": crossbills are there when they are there. So always have the ears at the ready to pick them out as they fly over. 

 

I would not be surprised if others in the urban area might have found different patterns in their "yards"

 

David Suddjian

Ken Caryl Valley

Littleton, CO

 

 

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