An apparent family group of 3 Red Crossbills, was found yesterday
afternoon, May 31, in the extreme SE corner of Cass Co. To reach this
location: turn S off Hwy 210 on CR 36, 1/2 mi W of the Crow Wing Co
line; in 2 mi CR 36 curves W, at this corner turn left, and go 1/4 mi
to the open pine stand on the E side of the road. The group included 1
ad male, 1 juvenile (with streaked underparts), and a 3rd bird of
unknown sex/age which none of us apparently was able to clearly see.
This species has been almost non-existent this spring, with only one
other sighting since mid-February reported to the MOU website (http://moumn.org/cgi-bin/mapi.pl?species=Red%20Crossbill
). Since both crossbills can begin nesting in late winter and wander
widely, it is impossible to say whether these birds nested locally or
much farther away. Note as well that there are very few actual
breeding records of either crossbill species on record.
This sighting was one of the highlights of the May 29-30-31 Minn
Birding Weekend (MBW) based at Deep Portage Learning Center in Cass
Co. In all, including co-leaders Craig Mandel, Ben Wieland and Dale
Yerger, 61 birders turned up 151 species, all within Cass Co during
this special 3-day MBW. I'd consider this total to be especially
noteworthy since no obvious migrants or unexpected rarities turned up.
(For example, only 4 shorebird species were found, which all breed
locally.)
Besides the crossbills, our highlights included: Yellow Rails and
Nelson's Sparrows at Swamp Lake along Hwy 371, ~10 mi N of Walker (1
of each was even seen); 3 Connecticut Warblers along CR 135, 3.5 mi E
of CR 63 or 3.5 mi W of CR 65 (in all, 19 warbler species were found);
and numerous Nelson's Sparrows at the Boy River marsh along Co Rd 8,
~8 mi N of Hwy 200.
Kim R Eckert
MBWbirds.com
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