The pair of White-winged Crossbills at Grandview Cemetery, Fort Collins (Larimer County) was seen briefly today around 11:30am in a spruce along the north side of Section 7 (this is generally in the far south part of the cemetery, about midway along the south boundary, about 75 yards in (north) from the south boundary road). The birds were seen by three of us (Kathy Kay from Evergreen, Donna McLean from Greeley, and myself). Many others tried off and on between 8am and 1:30pm, but, as far as I know, without success. We got onto the birds today by their chatter. Otherwise they were very quiet and very secretive. I hesitate to mention the following because it could totally wrong, but I just had a feeling today the birds were doing something related to nesting. Like Red Crossbills, White-winged Crossbills are known to nest in all months of the year, although December nesting is rare. Unlike all the other times I've watched them since their discovery on 22Nov, they were NOT out at the ends of branches associated with cones, or on the ground getting snow and/or mineral soil. Today they were inside a large spruce crown, in the shadows near the main trunk, occasionally chasing eachother, being somewhat active (i.e., not just resting/sleeping) but doing something apparently unrelated to normal cone-feeding. The literature mentions crossbills occasionally supplementing their seed diet with lichens from bark and that is a possible explanation, but the trees they were in did not have visible lichen growth. The literature also mentions their nest location as being in exactly the type of inner crown, shadowy site they were in today, sometimes next to the trunk, sometimes out a ways on a limb, usually on the south and east sides of selected trees.
If anyone sees these birds in the future, I would be particularly interested in knowing if you see them carrying sticks or other nest material, exchanging food with one another, or singing their song (as opposed to "chet-chet-chet"-type contact or flight calls). Colorado has very few substantiated nestings of this species and Grandview Cemetery would almost certainly be the lowest in elevation on record. I only saw 2 Red Crossbills (one male, one female) today in several hours of walking around. They were in a spruce just west of the main entrance and were probably Type 5s. Lots of seed-extraction action among the other common species. The deer herd is now at least up to 5, with at least 3 males (one well-racked, very whipped individual that follows a female around holding out his class ring, and two spike bucks that for five minutes this morning clacked horns like boys in a locker room towel fight). Dave Leatherman Fort Collins -- Colorado Field Ornithologists: http://www.cfo-link.org/ Colorado County Birding: http://www.coloradocountybirding.com/ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en
