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Red Crossbills at Jordan Lake



Yesterday (1/2) on the Jordan Lake NC count, our party encountered a flock 
of about 20 Red Crossbills feeding on pine cones in the top of a Loblolly 
Pine tree.  This is one of the most memorable sights I've seen on a CBC, 
with the crown of the 70' tree lit up like a Christmas tree with bright 
rosy-red birds!  Harold Carter, a veteran of New England CBCs where 
crossbills are not as exciting, first spotted them and nonchalantly said 
"look up there," so Sterling Southern and I gazed at the crown of the pine 
tree and were puzzled by what we saw. For a split second I thought "what's 
a flock of Scarlet Tanagers doing up there?" -- the weather was certainly 
appropriate for that -- but soon saw the field marks of Red Crossbills, 
down to the crossed bills.  Their pipity call notes were unfamiliar to me -
- undoubtedly they were a different race of Red Crossbill than the one 
I've seen in the NC mountains.  We counted 6 crossbills (4 male, 2 female) 
in the tree, but when the flock took off, their true number became 
apparent.

The flock was not in the same tree later on, but probably is somewhere in 
the area.  If you want to go looking for them, take 1008 south from US 64 
past Ebenezer SRA, take the first right (Pea Ridge Road), and 0.4 miles 
after you pass Lower Thrift Rd. (on left), turn right into a small gravel 
parking space by a gated road leading into the open pine woods.  There's a 
sign telling you that this is a Turkey hunting area.  The crossbills were 
about 100 yards past the gate in a tree on the right.  Also in the area 
were 2 Purple Finches and 10 Evening Grosbeaks!


--
Charles W. "Will" Cook                w 919-660-7423
cwcook@acpub.duke.edu                 h 919-967-5446
Duke University Botany Dept., Durham, North Carolina
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook