For what it's worth, I too have been encountering Red Crossbills (RECR) this season with much greater frequency than I have the past 2 years. As usual this time of year, I'm doing a number of bird surveys for the Conservancy in various parts of the state. Recently I had a number of surveys in the vicinity of the Eaglesnest Wilderness north of Vail, and in various locations in the general Eagle-Vail corridor. In the past week I've had RECR on every survey, sometimes just 1 or 2 individuals, but other times a dozen or more. I'm seeing them and hearing them calling, and sometimes singing. Sometimes I even get the two most common types in Colorado, Type 2 and Type 5, on the same survey (although in our surveys we don't record the RECR types in our data collection). I aspire to get recordings, but I am often too slow on the draw to get my recording apparatus ready before the birds leave.
I'm pretty sure the last couple field seasons I may have encountered only a couple individual birds the entire season, if that. So this year, it feels much more assuring and encouraging to find these fabulous creatures regularly traversing our forests.
Eric
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Eric DeFonso
near Lyons, Boulder County, CO