About 9 am today, Maggie Boswell and I came across a flock of White-winged Crossbills on the Arapahoe Glacier Rim Trail in the Indian Peaks Wilderness area!! We had turned around farther up the trail because of the very windy conditions, convinced that we wouldn't see anything. We heard them chattering and singing before we saw them. They were high in several Douglas fir trees by the trail feasting on the cones. I think we simultaneously said "white wing bars"?! All the birds had two bold white wing bars, and we estimated the flock to be about 18 birds. There could easily have been more.
Their song and calls are distinctly different than those of the Red Crossbill. We were about 3/4 mile to 1 mile up the trail. This trail takes off from the Rainbow Lakes campground parking area. The Rainbow Lakes road heads west 6.2 miles north of Nederland from highway 119 or the Peak-to-Peak highway. Paula Hansley Louisville -- 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/CANF-7hqdKeX%3DqkA3hx1X-og%3DqjrfrzjvW%2BaT1nvY99Am9sU89A%40mail.gmail.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
