Following Frank Gosiak's post from last weekend, I headed up to Cushing to look for the Black-backed Woodpecker. Two hours of searching the tamaracks produced nothing but a couple of Hairy's in the Woodpecker family, although there were plenty of trees that had been worked over. However, I was somewhat compensated by seeing a half-dozen White-winged Crossbills in the Black Spruces that are mixed in with the Tamaracks. I also heard them or others several times while searching for the Black-backed Woodpecker. To get to this spot, turn south on CR11 off of Hwy 10 in Cushing. You will immediately come to a snowmobile trail crossing CR11. Pull over on the shoulder (plenty of room), and then follow the snowmobile trail into the tamaracks. Several hundred yards in you will see where the trees have been worked on to the right of the trail. There is a smaller snowmobile trail going left at that point, and the crossbills were seen where the trees end to the right of that secondary trail. Several parties of snowmobiles went through while I was there, so I suspect the Woodpecker may have moved away from the noise deeper into the trees, or may have left the area altogether. Herb Dingmann St. Cloud
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