Subject: [Tweeters] White-winged Crossbills on Mt. Spokane-25 November
Date: Nov 27 20:26:11 2011
From: Andy Stepniewski - steppie at nwinfo.net


WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS ON MT. SPOKANE

25 NOVEMBER 2011

We walked up the first mile of the snowy road to Mt. Spokane from the
Selkirk Lodge parking lot. Our best find was a flighty flock of 40
WHITE-WINGED CROSSBILLS. I was first alerted to these bird by their call
notes, a distinctive "chif-chif-chif" with an inflective quality. We had
fantastic views of males perched atop naked larch trees, their rosy hues and
white-wing bars showing nicely.These birds seemed most closely tied to the
Western Larch trees in the forest here. Perhaps, this species is having a
good cone crop. Here's our list:



Bald Eagle 1
Pileated Woodpecker 1
Common Raven 30
Mountain Chickadee 6
Chestnut-backed Chickadee 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch 3
Brown Creeper 1
Pacific Wren 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet 5
Red Crossbill 5
White-winged Crossbill 40 Flock at 1/2 mile along summit track.

Pine Siskin 3



Andy and Ellen Stepniewski

Wapato WA

steppie at nwinfo.net