Hi Tweeters:
I still have RED CROSSBILLS in Des Moines. We live about 1.5 miles up from Puget
Sound at elevation 150 ft. Today I heard and saw individual birds fly over several
times, and once there was a small group in the top of a fir for a brief time. They
all call their jip, jip. One bird flew over and looked like it was doing a display.
It flew by slowly, and flapped it wings in time to its calls. Last week in a
neighborhood close to mine, a beautiful male was calling loudly in the top of a fir
tree, and the female was there with him. She would follow him when he flew. Are
they going to nest here? I hope so.

I first started seeing Red Crossbills here on Apr 7, and they remained about 4 days.
Then hoards of PURPLE FINCHES arrived, and they were singing. I stopped seeing &
hearing the Crossbills for a time.

On Apr 16, I went on the Marymoor walk w/ the large, very-nice group led by Brian
Bell. We heard some Purple Finches, but I don't think we saw them. On Sat, Apr 18,
Amy Schillinger led a RAS group to Lk Sammamish St Park. Purple Finches (PUFI's)
were singing everywhere. But the song sounded funny to me. These were all the 1st
year males, and they look like females. In Brian Bell's book, "Birds of WA State" it
says, "first-year males [not red] practice their songs before they get their adult
coats". So I guess they were practicing, and it sounded quite harsh, not the usual
liquid Purple Finch song. When I arrived home, there were adult PUFI's singing their
"real" songs everywhere in the neighborhood. The next day, I was hearing a lot
fewer.

All during this year I've been hearing PINE SISKINS almost everywhere, but just this
past week I am not hearing them anymore. Now I am hearing American Goldfinches
almost everywhere, and they are a beautiful lemon yellow.

Purple Finches continue to sing here, but there are fewer in number. Today I walked
for about 1.5 hrs in the morning. A PUFI female was flying back and forth bringing
nesting material to a Cedar Deodara, the tree w/ the long droopy branches, up on 18th
St. There used to be houses up there
before the Port bought them out under the flight path to SeaTac airport. So this
non-native tree has become about 40 feet tall. It has green needles. The apparent
nest is down about 1/3 of the way from the top, on the outer part of a branch. I
heard PUFI's here last year into the summer, for the first time that I remember them
that late in the year. So I suspect they bred here last year too.

On Sat, May 2, Adele Freeland led a RAS trip to Hylebos Wetland State Park (the bog)
in Federal Way. We had Crossbills calling overhead, but they were not visible.
Adele lives in Federal Way near Dash Pt St Park, and she is seeing and hearing
Crossbills in her neighborhood. Hans Feddern lives there, and he has been reporting
them too.

The local breeding Purple Finch, and the Crossbill
invasion is really interesting. I don't know if the Red Crossbills will stay, but I
hope so.

Yours, Carol Schulz
Des Moines, WA
linusq at att.net