A Family Crossbill Afair

This winter's invasion of White-winged Crossbill to our area possessed me to make a family excursion to Greenwood Cemetary in Grand Rapids so that all in the family could witness the spectacle. Who knows if this will ever happen again? My son Caleb (5) was excited to get out on this "treasure hunt" of an adventure. My wife, Bonnie, willingly went along with this crazy idea. We found them within 5 minutes of arriving (thank goodness!) and everyone got excellent views of several birds feeding high above our heads in a Norway Spruce. We even put Elijah (3 months) up to the scope for good measure! I'm sure he'll remember this and put White-winged Crossbill on his life list when he gets older (yeah, right!). I took the below photos to document the event.
After the 1/2 hour event we drove a short distance further to visit my Grandma to play cards. It was a fun afternoon for all!

White-winged Crossbill















Caleb points to the tree where we saw the crosbills.



















Elijah gets a look too!















Bonnie, the multi-tasker!

Unusual Crossbill Foraging Behavior

On 2/5/09 I was X-Country Skiing with my Dad at Pigeon Creek Park in Ottawa County. As we were preparing to leave a flock of 7 White-winged Crossbills landed in a deciduous tree and began, interestingly, to forage! I got a few photos and a video too. Turns out the tree is called a Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus) and it was devoid of it's fruits. So "what were they feeding on?" is the question. Chip Franke visited Pigeon Creek Park the following day and wrote this:
"I had 3 WWC today at the same location (Pigeon Creek Park). I went to the park to look at the tree of heaven. The birds landed in the tree briefly while I was there. I was able to watch them with a scope at close-distance and they did appear to be feeding on something. I was able to collect a branch from the tree and I carefully examined it for what they might be feeding on. I could not find anything living on the twig nor were there any tree seeds. The only think I found was some sort of fuzzy material that either was part of old seed pods that remained on the tree or some kind of insect egg case. I couldn't tell for sure. Chip"
The video I took is posted at the bottom.

Note the birds in the top of the tree.

Crossbills on a Sunny Day

On 2/4/09 my Dad and I revisted Greenwood Cemetary in Grand Rapids on a sunny day to get better looks at White-winged Crossbills and with hopes of getting decent pictures. We got both! There were about 7 males feeding in the top of a Norway Spruce in the sunlight! I digiscoped the pictures below.

Goldfinches and friends?

This winter my nyjer feeder has been inundated with American Goldfinches. They come in droves, filling the perches on my feeder and emptying the seed! I don't mind, trust me. I love watching them and providing a suppliment to their winter diet, however, they have refused to bring their other finchy friends. This has been a really good year for Pine Siskins and there are numerous Common Redpoll reports as well, but alas, not at my house. Well, winter's not over yet!

Snowy Owl at GR Ford Airport

On 1/27/09 in the late afternoon I went with my son Caleb and my Dad to find a previously reported Snowy Owl at Kent County's Gerald R. Ford Int. Airport. On our second time through my dad spotted it on top of a street light overhanging the road on the NE part of the airport. It flew to the fence and posed long enough to get a few photos. Then it dove in the snow and stuffed it's face in the snow as if it were eating something (see photo below). It may have caught something, but whatever it got, it was gone when the owl flew back to the fence.

White-winged "Yard Bird" Crossbill!

On January 8, 2009 I added White-winged Crossbill to my yard list! One day after searching for the birds at a college campus and cemetary (in response to previous reports), a single male decided to show up in the top of a White Pine tree across the street while I was shoveling snow! Since then, I've had several other sightings of WWCR's in my yard (see below). This year's WWCR invasion has been wonderful and possibly once in a lifetime.

The photos below were taken 1/24/09.

1/8/09 - one heard/seen in top of white pine across the street to the SE. Seen/heard by my son Caleb too.

1/9/09 - flock of about 20 seen/heard as they flew from top of white pines across the street and over my head as I stood in the driveway before heading south. Seen by Bonnie too.

1/12/09 - 3 briefly seen flying into and perching briefly in top of white pines across the street.

1/13/09 - one heard/seen in top of spruce N of our house

1/20/09 - at least one heard in top of white pine across the street.

1/22/09 - Fly-by of small flock SE of house. Heard.

1/24/09 - 4 heard and seen as they flew over the yard, landing in deciduous tree in neighbor's yard to the N before continuing to fly W.

1/24/09 - 3pm - 2 seen feeding in spruce adjacent to white pine across the street. A flock of 12 took off from there and flew N. Photos taken!

2/1/09 - Flock of about 2 dozen circled the pine and spruce across the street before disappearing to the south.

2/4/09 - 4 seen foraging in the top of the white pine, then flying West.