I have on one occassion seen Red Crossbills in sagebrush country. This
was near the beginning (east end) of the Wenas Road on April 15, 1989. Of
course this was not nearly so far from typical habitat but there was not a
conifer in sight. As I understand it crossbills can breed at any time of
year so I am not sure how you would identify a post fledgling dispersal.
Time of year does not seem sufficient by itself. Whatever the reason for
there presence in the sagebrush, I was fairly surprised.

On Tue, 23 Jul 1996 steppie at wolfenet.com wrote:

> Fellow Tweeters,
>
> Saturday 20 July 2 Red Crossbills - possibly immatures - flew into black
> cottonwoods along upper Hanson Creek on the Yakima Training Center 45 km
> east of suitable habitat along the east slopes of the Cascades. My only
> other records away from the mountains in summer include several on 5 and 6
> July and again 3 and 4 August 1987 in Wapato. Is there a documented usual
> post-fledging movement of Red Crossbills or is this a sign of a poor Cascade
> seed crop? Red Crossbills are most likely over the lowlands in November and
> early December in Yakima County, so these July and August records are
> interesting.
>
> Also, 2 Western Tanagers were in the same trees, Warbling Vireos and
> Orange-crowned Warblers are in the lowlands and, of course, the July
> movement of Rufous Hummingbirds, though it seems delayed this year. Things
> are happening!
>
> Noteworthy in the shrub-steppe zone was a chance find of a spring near the
> height of land between Squaw and Hanson Creeks with a "weedy" zone below it
> (several hectares) which was teeming with sparrows and larks, mostly
> juveniles. Brewer's (90) and Vesper Sparrows (80+) plus Horned Larks (35+)
> made up this contingent, clearly attracted to this wet zone. Several
> censuses of typical breeding habitats for the above-mentioned species 20
> July showed a low density of all passerines as compared to six weeks ago. As
> on the Hanford Site, there appears to be a post-breeding movement from most
> of the shrub-steppe zone for a number of passerines to local zones where
> feeding opportunities might be more favorable. Typically, these are ravines
> or borders of wet areas such as springs. Western Meadowlarks are in this
> category too, as are Loggerhead Shrikes.
>
> No Sage or Lartk Sparrows were noted at this wet area; these species were
> still in their usual breeding habitats which are the lower, drier
> communities of the shrub-steppe zone.
>
> Andy Stepniewski
> Wapato WA
>
>

Jim Elder (jime at eskimo.com)
SEA, Inc.
7030 220th St SW
Mountlake Terrace, WA 98043