[Birdtalk] crossbills at my feeder (at last)

[David Wheeler]

I was nearly brought to tears of gratitude two days ago when I looked out my window in Sugarhouse to see a yellow & red, extravagant-billed mob of toughs at our feeder.  No one else need have bothered trying to feed for the twenty or so minutes that followed.  The usual bullies of the feeder, House sparrows, could not match their boxing glove beaks with the scimitars of the crossbills, and wisely allowed themselves to be pushed off.  Only the acrobatic goldfinches on the precarious thistle feeder were safe to continue their consumption.
 
In an interesting sidenote, there was a female Cassin's finch traveling with this mob, a friend from the highlands, way back from the happy days when mountains teemed with ripening cones.  I've only had Cassin's finches at my feeder a few times, and here one was.
 
I've been frustrated of late since I welcomed Mark Stackhouse to my house with a joking condition of temporary residency that he had to alert me to any crossbills that might happen to fly by.  He noted, literally a few seconds later, that those birds disappearing down my street just then were crossbills.  He'd been subconsciously wondering what the odd call was in the almond tree in front of our house as he came to our porch.  "You are a bad man,"  I told him bitterly.  "And I don't believe you for a second."  Since then I had identified a flock flying by with whit calls hitherto unheard of above our yard, but the visual frenzy along with the distinctive toop calls at our feeders was much more satisfying.  Much, much more satisfying.
 
I wonder how much longer these crooked-smile conifervores will continue to bring grins throughout the valley.
 
Grinning in Sugarhouse,
 
David Wheeler
 
P.S.  Nice to see the pelicans back in Fairmont park, along with the less usual Spotted sandpipers.
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