Subject: [Tweeters] Des Moines - W Tanagers, Red Crossbills
Date: May 12 15:06:46 2009
From: Lynn & Carol Schulz - linusq at worldnet.att.net


Hi Tweets:
Down toward town, and back behind the Wesley Home that is by Des Moines Creek Park, I
was searching for Red Crossbills at 11:15am today, Tue, May 12. No crossbills there,
but great birds anyway. Then I saw something wonderful. 6 WESTERN TANAGERS flew
into a scraggly maple which had a lot of catkins hanging. Wow! 5 were beautiful
males in breeding colors, and one was a female looking very bright. There were many
American Goldfinches flying and singing, a few House Finches, and a few Pine Siskins.
6 Brown-headed Cowbirds were chasing each other, singing, and calling.
Up at my neighborhood at about 12:30, I went for a walk. It was sunnier, and that
seems to be good for crossbill activity. The activity was exceptionally good today.
They don't always call their jip, jip, and can blend right in to the evergreen trees.
But I immediately started hearing their calls as I left the house. Two RED
CROSSBILLS were in the top of a 20-foot hemlock. A male was pecking at a hemlock bud
or cone. Then two birds flew, but I didn't get to see the color of the second one.
I continued walking, and continued to hear their calls overhead, but didn't see the
birds.
I went back into the woods of Des Moines Creek Park, and for the first time heard
calling birds overhead, and in the fir trees in the park. I had never heard them
there before. Up on 18th Ave, which is blocked off to traffic, I heard and saw
quite a few crossbills. Most were in Douglas Firs. The birds are so flighty and
swift, that it is hard for me to discribe how the flocks of 15 or 20 birds fly. They
are very vocal, and the jips almost sound like pips. But they are not Purple Finches
which also make a pip call. I don't think the crossbills fly with as much undulation
as the other finches.
These birds are small. I had one perched right over me on Sat morning on top a 15-ft
spruce at my
driveway. It was a brownish red male, no more than 5 inches tall. Its wings were
very dark. It had a short, forked tail. Today, I mainly could only see one bird
when a whole flock of 15 would fly into a fir tree. It was amazing. They really
nestled in. The bird I usually saw was a single red male, not feeding. Is he
watching out for the flock? He blended in and looked like a doug fir cone.
It was nice and sunny, and a number of PURPLE FINCHES were singing. Unfortunately, I
didn't see the nest of the female Purple Finch that I had in a Cedar Deodara up on
18th last week. But the BUSHTITS are busy around a bag nest in that tree.
As I returned home, I saw a female RED CROSSBILL perched up in a fir tree of unknown
species. It had small cones, but but the tree was not a hemlock. I could only see
the yellow female, and two others in the shadows of the tree. But 5 crossbills flew
out of that tree. I could not see the color of the birds. The birds seem to fly in
slightly ragged flocks, maybe not quite so spread out as House Finches when they fly.
They are usually very vocal when they fly. They fly VERY quick and promptly
disappear. It's hard to study these birds, but great to occasionally see one or two.
Someone asked me what our neighborhood is like. It is a suburban neighborhood w/ a
green belt to the east, and Des Moines Creek Park to the north. We are in from the
sound about 1.5 miles, at an elev. of 150 feet. Our neighborhood has mostly
deciduous trees, but there are a nunber of conifers. But I have also seen a few
crossbills, and a flock of about 20 down over Des Moines Elementary, which is close
to downtown.
Andy and Pat, owners of the Wildbirds Unlimited store in Burien, told me they had
breeding RED CROSSBILLS in a 50-ft. Douglas Fir at their house in White Center (in
south Seattle) a few years ago. The birds nested near the top of the tree, near the
outer part of a branch. After the young fledged, all the birds came into their bird
feeders. We don't have many 50-foot firs around here, but I will keep watching.

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