Hi Cody, Is there a protocol/standards that you might suggest that would qualify as a good cone crop in an area?
Stephen Chang Boulder On Sunday, April 29, 2018 at 6:13:18 PM UTC-6, Cody Porter wrote: > > Hi all, > > I'm here with my annual request for information on the whereabouts of good > cone crops and crossbills. > > Unfortunately, cone crops over much of the Rockies were non-existent or > very poor this last year, causing a mass exodus of our usually abundant > type 2 (ponderosa pine) crossbills to the Great Lakes and Northeast region > (though it seems there have been several holdouts at feeders along the > Front Range and even deeper in the mountains). Hopefully as summer > progresses, good cone crops will develop and crossbills will return. > > As usual, I am particularly interested in hearing about developing > ponderosa pine, douglas-fir, and Engelmann/blue spruce cone crops. It is > still too early to detect a developing spruce/fir cone crop, but developing > ponderosa pine cones should be visible right now. Basically, look for lots > of small purple cones on ponderosa branches (see attached photo for an > example, taken on April 12 a few years ago). Come late June/early July, > spruce and doug-fir will have similar small purple cones all over, if they > are to have a good cone crop (attached is a not so great photo of that from > July 6 two years ago). > > Any information (even the absence of a good cone crop in an area) is > greatly appreciated. The unpredictable nature of conifer cone crops and > crossbills makes working on them an...interesting challenge, but the > information you folks have given me over the past few years has made things > go much more smoothly than I anticipated when I first started this project. > > Good birding, > Cody Porter > Laramie, WY > > > > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-Cipuvb2S3g0/WuZdo04ILUI/AAAAAAAABb4/hfdfvH51iG07XTL1SsWFqVSAQlIt6QXnQCLcBGAs/s1600/ponderosa%2Bpine%2Bconelets%2BVedauwoo.jpg> > > <https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-_74QQpIuj7k/WuZd7X9e6bI/AAAAAAAABcA/h5WODocLk0IQtbIhnOsfyAZ3oevcwYuRACLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_1108.JPG> > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/3a234889-3133-48c9-ad12-b594409818fc%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
