The influx of Red Crossbills I first mentioned back in the early part of July has continued to ramp up and I hear them at multiple stops every day in the Quabbin area (and elsewhere). The Eastern White Pine cone crop is very heavy in the area with the trees drooping from the weight of all the cones. I continue to record as many as I can to figure out the specific Type (more on the various Types can be found at the following links: finch research network and crossbills of North America). I just heard back from Matt Young from Cornell regarding a recording I obtained at Quabbin Park a couple days ago which turned out to be a Type 4 (also known as Douglas Fir Red Crossbill). This is a new Type for me and one that is usually found out west with just a smattering of records for the state and only one previous record for Hampshire County. I have now had four Types of Red Crossbills in Hampshire County (Type 1, 2 and 12 plus the Type 4 mentioned above). There appears to be a movement ongoing of both Type 2 and 4 into the east but my record of the Type 4 is only the third so far in the east this year with the two others being up on the Maine coast and the other up in interior Ontario....I'm certain more will be added over the next few weeks to months. All of my other recordings so far in the last several weeks that have been good enough to assign to a Type have been Type 12 although I have a couple recordings that need additional research as they don't quite bit nicely into a Type (largely due to poor recording on my part). I have a recent example of a Type 12 at the following link. I encourage people to get out and look and listen for these nomadic wanderers and hopefully get some recordings of the calls to add to the knowledge of these interesting birds.
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