Not a Fish Story, but... a Story Nonetheless

[Johnsfolly]

I am not just obsessed with new fish species.😉

Seeing a red crossbill has been a long time hope ever since I was working in the Poconos 35 yrs ago. I spent some time in the Poconos looking for them as well as in some spots in Ireland, but never found any. I saw reports last year of these birds being in a mountains of Western MD about 4 hours from us. Since mid Feb I have seen reports of crossbills in the Redden State Forest in Delaware, which is relatively close by (e.g. little over an hour), I had to make an effort to see them.

I headed out late morning on the 25^th and got to the forest at 1 pm. I went all over one section of the forest where many of the sightings were reported. I spent almost three hours in snow fall. Never heard or saw any. I was ready to leave, but did one last look at the bird alert and found that someone had seen a couple near the lodge that morning. I had not checked that area. I drove over and stopped and spoke with another birder that hadn't seen them either. I left went down to the lodge stopping and listening along the way, but didn’t hear anything and turned around. As I got back to the other birder he was on the side of the road looking out into the woods. He told me that four crossbills flew over the spot where my car was just after I left. I parked and walked back and we heard them calling in the distance. I went over in their direction and they stopped calling and were nowhere to be found. Cold and wet, I headed home.

I had the next Thurs and Friday off work. I went back out on Thurs the 2nd. I was walking towards the lodge when I heard a group calling behind me. I chased them for a while going down roadways and trails in the area where I heard them (was an area consistent with other sightings). I saw a few downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, chickadees, titmouse, and even pine warblers, but no crossbills. Like when I fish for lifers, I select multiple target birds for each trip. I left the forest and headed to a spot that consistently has a huge flock snow geese and in amongst the hundreds of white geese there is a single pink-footed goose. Not sure that I would find it, but there was another birder with a large spotting scope at the location and he had the pink-footed in the scope. He was nice enough to let me use his scope to see this lifer! There were snow geese on fields on both sides of the road and probably was close to a thousand birds. Though I did not find the crossbills I did see a lifer goose.

Back to the drawing board. Back at home I saw that the crossbills were seen that day and on Friday back near the lodge pretty early in the morning. I decided to head out early Sat morning. I got there around 8 am and headed for the lodge. There was another birder walking around as well. He headed down the road toward the lodge and I took a trail in the woods that lead to the lodge. I didn’t hear any this morning. We split again after meeting up at the lodge. He headed further south in the woods and I stayed near the lodge and watched hermit thrush, red bellied woodpeckers, chickadees, more pine warblers, but no crossbills. I went down another trail north of the lodge for ten or fifteen minutes or so, then back to the lodge. The other birder was there and he asked me if I had seen the male crossbill right there in a tree by the lodge. It may have been there throughout the time I was walking around the lodge. It left about five minutes before I met up with this man. I spent another 30 to 40 minutes trying to hear for see them. Nothing.

So I was getting pretty frustrated and thought about giving up on them. Thinking that it was too random to be able and find 10 to 12 birds in hundreds of acres of forest land. Anyway, last week I looked and saw that the last three alerts all had the birds near the lodge. I also saw that several species of marsh sparrows, Nelson's, saltmarsh, and seaside sparrows, were seen at the South Indian River inlet park. Now having multiple lifer targets I headed back on Sunday. First to the forest. I headed down the wooded trail to the lodge. I was just getting to the lodge when I heard a couple of the crossbills calling as they were flying to the north possibly across the road. I followed them along the roadway back from the lodge back towards the parking area and they got quiet. As I made the loop back towards the primary parking area, I heard the birds to the south back near the wooded trail. I made that loop again and heard them further south and east of me. I got back to the lodge and went into the woods about 100 yards to where I thought they were. I played a call sequence from eBird a couple of times. I didn't get an immediate response, but after a while I heard a bird calling and coming towards me. I saw it land in a tall tree and was able to confirm it was a male crossbill! I was very excited to finally see a bird that I started chasing off and on for 35 years and I was so relieved!

I did end up going to the South Indian River inlet park. I immediately spotted a flock of 25 to 30 Brant geese, which was a species that we routinely would see in Ireland and lately up in NJ. I walked the parameter of the property looking for these sparrows. I poked around in a couple phragmites stands and heard but could not see any of the birds. I did see dark-eyed juncos, song sparrows, a field sparrow, swamp sparrow, and fish crow. I met a couple of other birders and no one had seen any of these marsh species. I saw a birding group pushing around in the phragmites stand I was looking into earlier. The leader of the group told me that the seaside sparrows were hunkered down in that stand. Also that these are not a species that will fly away and let you see them. They tend to run on the ground or do only low brief flights to stay in the brush. I stayed with them as one of the birders gently pushed the birds towards us. With their help I was able to mark my first Lifer seaside sparrow. I also saw a saltmarsh sparrow, which I have seen in GA previously. I never saw the Nelson's that was also in that phragmites stand, but one of the birders got a decent photo of one. Since a Nelson’s would be a lifer, I will have to head back if there are further reports of them being in that area.