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Re: Red Crossbills at Jordan Lake



A quick update -- Doug Shadwick relocated three Red Crossbills at this 
spot today (1/3) at 1 pm.  He saw 1 male and 2 fem/imm "at the top of the 
first rise before going into the first pronounced dip."  The calls 
reminded Doug more of one of the calls of Carolina Wren (in tempo and 
intensity) rather than pipits.  Mid-day seems to be a good time to look 
for these birds -- we saw them at noon yesterday.

> 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
> 


--
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