Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Feeder Highlight Reel...

From Oak Harbor, Ohio, Kim writes: In Kenn’s last post he offered great information about White-winged Crossbills, including areas to focus your search for them in the field. I just wanted to add that you shouldn’t rule out a visit to your feeding station! Several years ago a White-winged Crossbill visited one of my feeders (in central Ohio) for a couple of days. This individual went strictly for sunflower seeds, and had no trouble using that wicked-cool bill to reach through the screened sides of the feeder to pull out seeds, which it scarfed down like a champ!

The feeder was a large hopper-style with plastic-coated wire sides. I actually got a photo of “my” bird, and--if you stop looking at the cool bird for a second--you can see the type of feeder I’m describing so rottenly.

Aren't they just the coolest birds?!

Kenn and I don't keep life lists, per se, but we do keep a list of birds that we see in our yard. Ahem...Okay, we also count birds that we see FROM our yard. In fact, full disclosure here, there have been a number of times that we were out running, spotted a bird that we thought we could see from our yard, and sprinted all the way home to get it for the yard list. Crazy? Yeah. But hey, wouldn't you race home to get a Bald Eagle or a Trumpeter Swan on your yard list? Be honest now....

We've had some really great birds on our yard list, (and lots of good exercise racing home so we could count some of them too...) but the crossbill remains one of my all-time “yard bird” highlights.

If anyone else is willing to share their own favorite yard birds, I'd love to hear about them.

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