Hello all, I've been meaning to send this, but am just getting around to it now. Sorry.
Over the past 3 weeks I've audio-recorded or heard Type 1 Red Crossbills at the following locations in south-central NY: Michigan Hill State Forest Richford: 6 birds at corner of Rockefeller and Michigan Hill Rds Michigan Hill SF. (6/12; call type unknown since look was quick) Morgan Hill State Forest Fabius/Truxton: one Type 1 calling bird. (6/18) Muller Hill State Forest Georgetown/Otselic line: one Type 1 singing and calling bird last Saturday. (7/2) Ridge Rd Otselic: six type 1 birds singing, calling, pairing, chasing at 3 locations spread out along Ridge Rd last Saturday. (7/2) North End Rd German: one flyover Type 1 bird. (7/2) Pharsalia/New Michigan State Forest: a singing and calling Type 1 at 4-corners of North Rd and CCC Trucking Trail and a pair of Type 1 territorial birds south of 4 corners near new tornado damage. (7/2) I've also heard several SWAINSON'S THRUSHES in the area. In central NY cone crops are as follows: 5=excellent 4=good 3=fair 2=poor 1=bad White spruce: 4.5 (some local variability especially with blue form, but overall really good) Red Spruce: 4.5 (few areas I know have all been very good) Black Spruce: N/A (one area i checked was quite good) Norway Spruce: 4.5 (some local variability, but overall most areas good to excellent) E. Hemlock: 5 (very good to excellent across all areas; best cone crop in many years) Tamarack: 4.75 (very good to excellent across all areas; much more local than hemlock) European Larch: 4.25 (some local variability, but overall quite good to very good) White Pine: 3.5 (still developing some) Red Pine: 2.5 (a few areas locally fair to good, but most areas poor-fair) Overall cone crop in CNY is the best it's been since 2000. Synchrony is great across nearly all species including white pine --very unusual to have spruces, hemlock, larches AND WHITE PINE producing in the same year. White Pine is variable with some areas poor, but many areas are in the good range. Reports I've received from northern NY, Maine, NH, Vermont, PA and NC all point towards a good to excellent cone crop. So, synchrony is great across a large area. It's hard to say how many nesting finches we'll see since cone crop covers such a large area, but I strongly suspect we'll see at least modest numbers of nesting siskins and crossbills across many parts of the northeast as the year progresses. The big question is, will we see the larger influxes of WW Crossbills, Siskins and Red Crossbill Types 3 and 10 as the year progresses. Time will tell. cheers, Matt -------------------------------------------------------------------- mail2web.com - Microsoft® Exchange solutions from a leading provider - http://link.mail2web.com/Business/Exchange -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
