I haven't seen any "concentrations" of Red Crossbills, but they seemed
to be in good numbers on my recent, brief visit to Mount Rainier
National Park (July 25). I saw or heard 5 Red Crossbills at Longmire
Meadows, 3 at the Sunshine Point Campground near the SW entrance, and
2 more along Highway 706 about 4 miles west of Longmire (just west of
Kautz Creek).

I also observed 5 Red Crossbills on July 22 along the Yew Lake Trail
in Cypress Provincial Park (about 3000 feet altitude) just north of
Vancouver, BC. A couple of these birds were singing.

All of the above Red Crossbills appeared to be the "Sitka" form of Red
Crossbill (the small-billed, soft-voiced form which is the usual
breeding form in forests west of the Cascades).

If other Tweeters have recent sightings of Red Crossbills, I'm sure
that Dennis Paulson would appreciate hearing about them-- please see
his attached message below.

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net


----- Original Message -----
From: Dennis Paulson <dpaulson at ups.edu>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, July 22, 2003 3:34 PM
Subject: crossbill question again


> Hello tweets,
>
> I asked about Red Crossbills earlier this year, and I'd like to ask
> again for Tom Hahn, who will be coming up here to study them soon.
> Has anyone seen any concentrations of crossbills in the last month?
> If so, could you e-mail me directly? Many thanks in advance!
>
> Dennis
> --
> Dennis Paulson, Director phone
253-879-3798
> Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
> University of Puget Sound e-mail
dpaulson at ups.edu
> 1500 N. Warner, #1088
> Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
> http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html