Another Red Crossbill type confirmed

 

Red Crossbill Type 2, Prescott Peninsula, July 28, 2012

Red Crossbill Type 1, Prescott Peninsula, July 28, 2012

Red Crossbill Type 10, Quabbin Park, July 28, 2012

Another post on the ongoing incursion of Red Crossbills and the different ‘types’ involved.  As mentioned in previous post there are at least 10 recognized types of Red Crossbills that may indeed represent ten different species.  The only way to separate the different types involves getting a recording of the birds involved and analyzing the call by looking at sonograms and matching the call to correct sonogram that represents known types of Red Crossbills.  Matt Young at Cornell has been extremely helpful in doing this for me and will assist anyone else who records any Red Crossbills.  See the article regarding this at eBird:  http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/red-crossbill-types.  I recently (Nov 4) ran across additional Red Crossbills at Quabbin Park and after analysis by Matt Young at Cornell the bird recorded turned out to be a ‘Type 10” Red Crossbill.  I have now recorded Types 1,2 and 10 at various points at Quabbin this year.  I have oddly not come across any Type 3 yet even though they are a major part of the current incursion and have been recorded in the area by others.  Additional postings on Red Crossbills and their call types can be found here: 

http://quabbinbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/08/red-crossbill-type-determined.html

http://quabbinbirdingandbeyond.blogspot.com/2012/09/red-breasted-nuthatch-and-red-crossbill.html

I initially ran across Type 2’s in July and August, Type 1’s in September and now Type 10’s in November.  Given the number of reports of Type 3’s in the area I am bound to run across some of these eventually too.   I have included examples of each call type that I have recorded so far this year.

Winsor Dam at dawn, Nov 8, 2012

Quabbin camera view of Winsor Dam area midday (lots of white caps!), Nov 8, 2012

Satellite image of nor'easter, Nov 8, 2012

In addition I stopped by Winsor Dam briefly on the way to work in the hopes of running across something of interest that was brought in with the latest bout of strong winds.  The conditions on the reservoir resembled the ocean with white caps limiting visibility.  The winds were near constant at 15-20 with gusts into the 30’s with a temperature around freezing which made for some difficult and uncomfortable viewing conditions.  I was able to see a dozen plus gulls that all appeared to be Ring billed Gulls as well as a distant Bald Eagle.  I was unable to find any waterfowl or anything more unusual brought in by the latest storm.

Updates to hurricane season and crossbills

Tropical Atlantic map, Aug 9, 2012, from NOAA

A quick update on a couple of topics I have talked about before.  The first is the ongoing hurricane season.  As of today the updated prediction for the season shows it at average or a bit above.  As the season has gone on the predictions for the total numbers of named storms has increased.  Here is a bit of the latest information courtesy of NOAA:

"Across the entire Atlantic Basin for the season – June 1 to November 30 – NOAA’s updated seasonal outlook projects a total (which includes the activity-to-date of tropical storms Alberto, Beryl, Debbie, Florence and hurricanes Chris and Ernesto) of:

·         12 to 17 named storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including:

·         5 to 8 hurricanes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which:

·         2 to 3 could be major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph)

The numbers are higher from the initial outlook in May, which called for 9-15 named storms, 4-8 hurricanes and 1-3 major hurricanes. Based on a 30-year average, a normal Atlantic hurricane season produces 12 named storms, six hurricanes, and three major hurricanes."

So far there has been six named storms with two of those being hurricanes.  As of August 9^th there is one named storm striking Mexico and a new tropical depression that has formed well out in the Atlantic that is predicted to become the next tropical storm.
The entire prediction and explanation can be found at the following link:

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2012/20120809_atlantic_hurricane_season_update.html

Red Crossbill, Prescott Peninsula, July 28, 2012

The other topic I will update are the Red Crossbills occurring in the Quabbin area this year.  A few experts from Cornell have contacted me to get additional video/audio for analysis to determine the specific type of crossbill located here.  I have uploaded additional photos and video from not only this season but previous seasons as well at Quabbin which can be found here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/54277284@N05/sets/72157630961068938/

The initial analysis done with the assistance of Ian Davies is likely correct in identifying the specific birds as Type 2 but there was some question and a bit further in the way of analysis was completed by Matthew Young from Cornell and this is the message I just got back this afternoon:

"Hi Guys,

I did the analysis on all of the material.   I would have to say that all except maybe 6589 and RECR 1 are of Type 2. Even these two recordings, I suspect are Type 2 as well, but a cautious approach would be to leave these two as probable Type 2 or unable to identify to type 100%. What was the corresponding video to RECR_1?

* probable type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6536.wav: classic Type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6541.wav: Type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6546.wav:  Type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6547.wav: Type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6550.wav: Type 2
Mass_Red Crossbills_6589.wav: Type 2 *
Mass_Red Crossbills_6612.wav: Type 2
RECR_1: Type 2 *
RECR_2:  Type 2

Type 1 have a more attenuated chip and these two have a sound that is suggestive of that...and the specs are a bit intermediate. Anyway, I'm attaching short wav files of Type 1 and 2 I've recorded in NY. These are good examples of both."

Red Crossbill type determined

Red Crossbill (type 2), Prescott Peninsula, MA, July 30, 2012

Red Crossbill (type 2) video, Prescott Peninsula, MA, July 30, 2012

As a follow up to my reports on Red Crossbills on the Prescott Peninsula at Quabbin the specific type has now been determined.   The specific type of Red Crossbill has been determined to be type 2.  This was determined with the assistance of Ian Davies who converted the video, with its associated audio, into a wave file and then used the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s free software (Raven Lite) which can be downloaded from this link:

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/brp/raven/ravenoverview.html

The recordings I obtained were compared to those of the different known types of Red Crossbills using a spectrogram.  The determination of type was obtained in this fashion.  Type 2 Red Crossbills occur across a large area of the country including the northeast.  Other types have/could occur in this area. There are at least nine (or ten) recognized types of Red Crossbill.  The overall size of the bird and the bill varies with each type but determining all types by sight alone is difficult to impossible.  The only way sure way to differentiate the types is through calls viewed as a spectrograph.

Additional information concerning these various types and their associated calls can be found at the following link:

http://ebird.org/content/ebird/news/introduction-to%20crossbill-vocalizations

http://research.amnh.org/vz/ornithology/crossbills/contents.html

As with previous sightings of Red Crossbills in this area breeding is suspected (and has been confirmed in the past).  The first Red Crossbills on Prescott Peninsula were noted on June 3, 2009 and small numbers were seen through the end of the year in 2009.   The largest number seen on any one day during that year was 14.   In 2010 they were first noted in April and seen through early July.  The largest number seen on a single day in that year was 26.  During the other years of the breeding bird atlas they were not noted.  Juvenile birds with adults feeding them were noted in both 2009 and 2010.  Also during 2010 they were noted in Quabbin Park in the same area from mid October through the end of November with the greatest number seen being 14.  A great overview of breeding in the state can be found on the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas page found at the following link:

http://massaudubonblogs.typepad.com/massbirdatlas/2010/11/218-red-crossbill.html

To sum up the above mentioned link the number of breeding Red Crossbills is quite small in the state with the only confirmed records during the entire five year long atlas study occurring at Quabbin, specifically on the Prescott Peninsula.  The other probable location for breeding in the state was also at Quabbin, located in Quabbin Park.  The only block with possible breeding was located in Plymouth County.  Certainly one of the rarer breeding species in the state with only a handful of confirmed records.  It does appear that the Prescott Peninsula is a breeding hotspot for this species in Massachusetts.   

SUMMARY (These results last updated 01 Aug 2012): Red Crossbill	Blocks
	All
Confirmed	3
Probable	1
Possible	1
Observed	1
Blocks with evidence ¹	5

Chart above courtesy of Mass Audubon and the Massachusetts Breeding Bird Atlas.

For a little bit more information the range maps of various types can be found at the following link:

http://www.wos.org/issue27.pdf

With the permission of the staff at Quabbin I hope to continue additional research on this species on the Prescott Peninsula in the coming years.