Red crossbills

[Bob Duchesne]

I detect a change of season. For the third time this morning, I’ve heard a handful of red crossbills overhead here on the north end of Pushaw Lake in Hudson. They’re certainly around this summer. I’ve been getting them on my bird atlas surveys farther north. But they haven’t been noisy around here until just now.

 

Meanwhile, a family of white-breasted nuthatches continues to chow down on my suet, with parents feeding young. This is 5+ weeks after nuthatch families were first detected milling around here. According to online literature, nuthatches raise only one brood per year. So either this is an unlikely second brood, or a late re-nest, or really, really dependent children. Since, the family-feeding activity wasn’t detected again until recently, I’m going with the re-nest scenario.

 

Bob Duchesne

Virus-free. www.avast.com

[tom A]

Hey Bob,

Interesting on the crossbills.  My atlas work around Waldo county has turned up flyovers fairly frequently during the last week also.  Hope that this may mean that we could get more around this fall!

Good birding,

tom

[Glenn Hodgkins]

Yes, same in Kennebec County over the last week, and two weeks ago in southern Oxford County. There's a big white pine cone crop around here with lots of green cones. Maybe some of the crossbills will breed in white pine groves in central and southern Maine for their late-summer breeding cycle. That would be exciting.

Glenn Hodgkins
Hallowell

[Allison Wells]

Jeff and I wrote about crossbills in our latest Boothbay Register column:

 

https://www.boothbayregister.com/article/most-strange-and-mysterious-creature/136790

 

We were inspired in part by reports like these, which include our own.

 

Good birding,

 

Allison and Jeff Wells

Gardiner, Maine

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