Hi Cody, Is there a protocol/standards that you might suggest that would qualify as a good cone crop in an area?
Stephen Chang Boulder On Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 6:13:18 PM UTC-6, Cody Porter wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm here with my annual request for information on the whereabouts of good > cone crops and crossbills. > > Unfortunately, cone crops over much of the Rockies were non-existent or > very poor this last year, causing a mass exodus of our usually abundant > type 2 (ponderosa pine) crossbills to the Great Lakes and Northeast region > (though it seems there have been several holdouts at feeders along the > Front Range and even deeper in the mountains). Hopefully as summer > progresses, good cone crops will develop and crossbills will return. > > As usual, I am particularly interested in hearing about developing > ponderosa pine, douglas-fir, and Engelmann/blue spruce cone crops. It is > still too early to detect a developing spruce/fir cone crop, but developing > ponderosa pine cones should be visible right now. Basically, look for lots > of small purple cones on ponderosa branches (see attached photo for an > example, taken on April 12 a few years ago). Come late June/early July, > spruce and doug-fir will have similar small purple cones all over, if they > are to have a good cone crop (attached is a not so great photo of that from > July 6 two years ago). > > Any information (even the absence of a good cone crop in an area) is > greatly appreciated. The unpredictable nature of conifer cone crops and > crossbills makes working on them an...interesting challenge, but the > information you folks have given me over the past few years has made things > go much more smoothly than I anticipated when I first started this project. > > Good birding, > Cody Porter > Laramie, WY > > > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Cipuvb2S3g0/WuZdo04ILUI/AAAAAAAABb4/hfdfvH51iG07XTL1SsWFqVSAQlIt6QXnQCLcBGAs/s1600/ponderosa%2Bpine%2Bconelets%2BVedauwoo.jpg> > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_74QQpIuj7k/WuZd7X9e6bI/AAAAAAAABcA/h5WODocLk0IQtbIhnOsfyAZ3oevcwYuRACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1108.JPG> > -- 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 [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/3a234889-3133-48c9-ad12-b594409818fc%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
