AN AWESOME WINTER DAY

I was over at Burnt-Rossman this morning when I spotted two birds flying through the woods. They were a pair of Red Crossbills that were unusually quiet.


The female was peeling wood fiber off of a dead limb on a Red Oak.


She was silent, intently working on the limb.

Once she had a small bundle, both birds flew off out of sight.

I had a feeling as to what was going on, so I stayed in the area to see if they returned. A short while later both birds returned and the female this time perched on the end of a branch and continued to gather material.

Once another mouthful was collected, both birds flew off again. Red Crossbills can nest at any time of the year so it was becoming obvious that the female was gathering nesting material.


The male remained within a few feet of the female at all times, occasionally preening and even breaking out into song a few times. It did not however appear to be helping with any of the nest building activities. The whole process was continued a few more times and I was able to follow them(on snowshoes) through the woods; each time a little further in the hopes of locating the nest. I think I'm zeroing in on it. It's only a 10,000 acre forest.

A Northern Goshawk was spotted taking a mid-morning soar.

The bird was gaining altitude quickly.

When they soar like this, it's easy to see how sometimes they can be mistaken for buteos.

The bird did not really leave the area and just seemed to be out on a reconnaissance flight.

Later in the day, some additional Red Crossbills were found.

What a winter it has been for these birds.

A Common Raven flew overhead. The sign of an awesome day!

DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW

The winds finally stopped blowing up here last night so I decided to head over to the Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest to check on the Red Crossbills that were there and after that take a ride through farm country to see if anything intersting was going on. The weather forecast was for some accumulating snow in the afternoon and that was just what I was looking for.

Burnt-Rossman is an intersting piece of state forest. It's considered large for a piece of state land outside the Adirondack or Catskill forest preserves. It's difficult to find much information on it as there are no kiosks or maps and I litterally stumbled upon it one day years ago while out driving and have enjoyed birding it ever since.

Even the DEC isn't quite sure how big of a parcel it is, as these two signs are about a mile apart from each other. This is the kind of thing that drives surveyors nuts. One thing is for sure, the taxman knows exactly how big of a parcel it really is.


One of the first birds that I spotted was this Ruffed Grouse strutting around on a snow covered forest road. Another bird was on the edge of the road and that was probably why he was acting so territorial. It's not unusual to hear them drumming or see them acting territorial in the winter.

It didn't take long to find the crossbills. They were in the same general area where they had been hanging out for the couple of months. Not a lot of them, that's for sure. Last weekend my curiosity was really piqued when I found a pair and the male actually was singing. They have an incredible song that is quite elaborate for a winter finch.


There was actually some sun out during the early morning hours and this female was spotted in a nearby hardwood.

3 more were spotted across the road on top of a Norway Spruce. It's always amazed me at how quiet crossbills can be when they want to. You get the feeling that someone or something is watching you, so you turn around and there they are. These birds were completely silent and did not make a sound until they eventuall flew back deeper in the forest.


This is what I really wanted to see. In the past few months I had only observed them feeding on the cones of some of the European Larch that is planted there. According to what I've read, larch is not the prefered food of the larger billed Red Crossbills as it is very hard for them to manipulate such a small cone with a beak that is designed for larger cones. I was happy to see that this crossbill had found some of the abundant White Pine cones in the area and was feasting on them. There is an excellent White Pine crop in the area and perhaps this will encourage them to stick around.

I think this guy has found what he was looking for. Time will tell.

I found this Northern Shrike along the side of the road once I had left the state forest. It was clouding up in a hurry and the lighting wasn't that great.

And then it was off to farm country as the storm approached. When the snow finally arrives, the fieldbirds come out to the edge of the road to try and find something to eat.

At one intersection, I found a group of "snowbirds" frantically foraging.

The flock was mainly Horned Larks, but after some careful scrutiny I was able to find a Lapland Longspur in the group.

A few moments later I realized that there was another longspur in the flock. It was snowing pretty hard at this point and the birds seemed to be frantic.


It sure is hard to get a decent picture with so many snowflakes in the air.

Longspurs are very abundant on the arctic tundra in the summer. Hard to believe that they come down here to the "sunny south" to spend the winter. I think I would keep heading south!

A little further down the road, I spotted some geese in a field on top of a knoll. It was snowing so hard that at first I thought there were just some Canada Geese in a field with some clumps of snow behind them.

A closer look revealed that there was actually a flock of Snow Geese on the top of the hill. They were probably grounded once the heavy snow began.

I wish the visibility was a little better, but then again the reason that the birds had landed was the snow. Guess I shouldn't complain.

There were both adults and immatures mixed in the flock. I looked through the flock as best I could given the conditions. Nothing but Snow Geese were found and I decided to move on and stop back later once the fast moving storm had stopped. I stopped back about an hour later and all that was there were the Canada Geese. Just a short delay in their plan and they were off again.

AUGUST BIRDING IS HOT

It was forecast to be a warm and humid summer day so I decided to head out early and do some birding over at the Burnt-Rossman Hills State Forest. As usual, it was well worth getting up before dawn and making the trip.

I found this Mourning Warbler in an area that I wasn't really expecting. It was fairly deep in a mature forest. It was not singing and it was in an area that I had birded in the previous months and not noticed one. I had to wonder if it was a bird that was either unsuccessful at breeding or had finished it's breeding responsibilities and was already meandering south.

They have a very distinct chip call and this bird gave me an opportunity to study it some more.

A while later I heard the sounds of a fledgling begging for food. It turned out to be a young Blue-headed Vireo.

The parent birds were close by and once they started to scold me I knew it was time to leave.

And here was one of the reasons I decided to spend some time at Burnt-Rossman today. Having spotted Red Crossbills a couple of weeks ago near my home, I was curious if they had also found their way here. They sure had. I found this bird in a stand of larch. I had a tough time getting a decent view of it as it was about 60ft up in a dense stand. I was content with the few limited views that I got and moved on down the road.


I was attempting to get some pictures of a less than cooperative juvenile Yellow-rumped Warbler, when two birds flew out of a stand of White Pine and landed on some electrical wires.

I walked around them to get a little better lighting. They kept looking down to the ground and I knew what they were after. It seemed so surreal to be looking at two of them on a 80 degree day perched on an electrical wire. I guess anything is possible.


The crossbills eventually descended to the dirt road below and started to search for grit.
When you spend all day eating pine and spruce seeds, you need tiny pieces of stone and sand in your gut to help with the digestive process.

Not only do Red Crossbills have unique bills that allow them to pry open cones and extract seed, but they also have specially evolved tongues that help them with the process.

When you get an up close look at them you realize just how rugged a bird they are.
A plump, stout body combined with muscular legs and feet. And lets not forget that vice-like bill. Quite the coniferous cone wrecking machine.

They both are actually first year birds and you can see some small patches of red starting to show on the male in the background. The female has a lot more gray on the neck and back.


You have to wonder what these two birds will be up to in the coming months if they stick around.


A little while later I spotted this adult male Red Crossbill in a different location. This picture sums up one of the problems they are facing. Lots of cone on the pines and spruce, unfortunately none of it is ripe... yet.

THE DOLDRUMS???

I'm always amazed when some refer to July and August as the "doldrums" when it comes to birding. I've always found this time of year to be quite the opposite. Let's do some simple math. A couple of birds show up in appropriate habitat, set up a breeding territory and raise a brood of offspring. Their in no hurry to migrate yet, so it stands to reason that there are more birds in a given area in the months of July and August then May or June.
The main factor that has allowed this time of the year to be labeled as "slow" is that our own lives become more involved with things such as picnics, vacations and firewood (it's actually the time of year that I try and get my wood for the winter split and stacked). Hardly seems fair. The dog-days of summer are not as birder friendly as the spring months are.

This female Common Yellowthroat brings home some tasty morsels for some hungry nestlings nearby.

This young Golden-crowned Kinglet was curious as to what I was up to.

It was a nice opportunity to snap a few pictures. Not often that they sit still for long.

No golden crown yet. That will come as the bird matures this fall.

A young Ruby-throated Hummingbird warms itself in the morning sun.

This was probably the most interesting observation of the day. It's a Canada Warbler (on left) and Nashville Warbler (right) travelling together. The nashville was a juvenile bird and was following the adult canada around. The young bird was actually making begging calls as if it was trying to get the canada to find it some food.

Its not that unusual for adult birds of one species to feed a begging fledgling of another species. Instinct is a powerful thing. At least they have matching eyerings.

And here was the surprise of the day. After some morning birding, I went home and was doing some things around the house. I heard something coming from the spruces next to my house that really caught me off guard. Jip, Jip, Jip ...... Jip, Jip, Jip. I ran to a spot where I could scan the top of the spruces from and managed to see a couple of Red Crossbills noisily flying away. Wow! Wasn't expecting that. I headed back out into the field, checking some areas that I thought would be attractive to them. I found some more and was able to snap some pictures.

Red Crossbills are some of the great nomads of the birding world. They can literally show up and nest anytime and anyplace. It will be interesting to see if they stick around.

I had a tough time today considering them winter finches.

August birding is so boring... Yeah right!