I think this is an excellent example of feeder watcher vs birder vs serious
birder. Chris believes his grandparents are not birders, but if they can ID
a White-winged Crossbill at their feeder they certainly qualify to the
threshhold of the USFWS survey.

I still have Mountain Chickadees coming into my feeders, and at least 5
Red-breasted Nuthatches. Yesterday 8 Yellow-rumped Warblers tried to use
the birdbath but only 5 fit a one time.

Merry Christmas all!

Randy Hill
Othello
----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Charlesworth" <c_charlesworth23 at hotmail.com>
To: <bcintbird at yahoogroups.com>; <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, December 24, 2004 9:27 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] White-winged Crossbills


> Birders,
>
> My grandparents reported White-Winged Crossbills at their birdbath in
> Kelowna a couple of weeks ago. They are not birders, and White-winged
> Crossbills are awfully rare in the valley bottom so I said, they must be
> bright finches, maybe Pine Grosbeaks. I asked them to try to get a picture
> and tonight when they arrived for rum and eggnogs they brought with them
> gifts! No not frankinsense and Thick-billed Murre, but a photo of a
> stunning male White-winged Crossbill at the birdbath! Just goes to show
> that you never can disregard reports of rare birds without a little
> thought. They live in the Ranch Park trailer park in the Ellison area
> along Old Vernon Road. Apparently the birds (about 4) are fairly regular
> in the trailer park so anyone wanting to look there should do so.
>
> Merry Christmas Everyone,
>
> Chris Charlesworth
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Tweeters mailing list
> Tweeters at u.washington.edu
> http://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters
>