All, I'm here with my annual request for information on the whereabouts of large numbers of crossbills and developing conifer cone crops. Pretty soon, crossbills are going to start wandering around looking for food as the cone crops they fed on this winter are depleted. As cones start maturing on trees around July, they should start to settle in areas with large cone crops and gear up for a later summer/fall breeding season.
So, as you're out in the field this summer, I'd appreciate it if folks would keep an eye out for developing cones on ponderosa pine, lodgepole pine, engelmann/blue spruce, and douglas-fir. Developing cones look like bright pink/purple mini cones and should be detectable on the pines now (I've noticed a small number on some ponderosa pine in the Laramie Range) and spruce/fir by early-mid June.. Given the extensive douglas-fir and spruce cone crop this past year over much of the Rockies, I expect these conifers will not produce a good cone crop this fall, but ponderosa and lodgepole should in some areas. However, crossbills will sometimes attempt to rear an additional clutch on spruce/fir in June/early July if the cone crop is large (as many are right now), so current/future observations of crossbills feeding on these conifers would be greatly appreciated. As always, thanks so much for all the information. Good birding, Cody Porter Laramie, WY cport...@uwyo.edu -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/4e2cef78-3052-494a-9eb9-1b43c5d65041%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
