THE SOUTH HILLS
CROSSBILL
A new species
for Idaho?
Lisa Hardy
Red
Crossbills inhabit the coniferous forest where they feed on the seeds they
extract from pines and other conifers. They are social nomads, flocking
together to range across the forest to areas with heavy cone crops. A hike in
the mountains often turns up a flyover of birds uttering their single note
flight call. In winter, we get better looks at these birds with their bizarre
crossed bills when they visit our backyard feeders.
Red
Crossbills have been the subject of increasingly detailed studies over the last
several decades. Sub-populations have evolved that are adapted to feeding on
particular species of conifers. Ten of these sub-populations, known as
"Types" have been identified so far in North America. The differences
in bill and body measurements that distinguish these Types are subtle, and
field identification depends upon discernible differences in the call notes.
Discernible, that is, to the experienced ear….
Type
2, a relatively large bird that specializes in ponderosa pine, is probably the
most common type in the Coeur d'Alene-Spokane area. To the east, in the wetter
forest of the Coeur d'Alene River drainage, one of the smaller types, such as
Type 1 or Type 4, is probably the most common.
In
September, Shirley Sturts and I traveled to Boise to attend a Western Field
Ornithol-ogists conference. The keynote speaker was Dr. Craig Benkman, who has
recently proposed that a population of Red Crossbills in the South Hills of
southern Idaho are a separate species. Now, I don't want to get bogged down in
a discussion of the species concept here (it is a very contentious subject
amongst biologists), but the idea of reproductive isolation of a population is
frequently cited as the "gold standard" for species differentiation.
And Benkman has assembled the evidence of
reproductive isolation of the South Hills population, 
presented in a recent paper published in
Condor.
There are probably any number of other bird populations
that would qualify as separate species if only their stories were known. These
are "cryptic" populations, showing only slight differences in
morphology to the human observer, but whose members can distinguish amongst
themselves sufficiently to choose partners from their own kind. These cryptic
populations just have to wait to receive their species-level status until a
researcher takes up their cause, studies their behavior, analyzes their genetic
makeup, and "lobbies" for them.
Benkman is a good lobbyist for
the South 
Hills crossbills: modest and thoughtful,
he somehow conveys his sense of delight in the natural world that has maintained
his interest in assembling the crossbill story over the decades. In his talk,
he showed how crossbills' bills and palate are adapted to feeding on pine
seeds, and why a given bill shape is more efficient at feeding on a particular
species of pine. (When he showed a slow-motion video clip of a crossbill using
its specialized bill in a sideways
maneuver to open a cone scale and extract the seed with its tongue, the
audience erupted in cheers. Who knew what was going on up there in the tree
tops?)
As
an aside, I was impressed by Benkman's unwillingness to sacrifice birds for the
purpose of examining the structure of their palates. Palate structure was an
important piece of the puzzle in studying the specialized adaptations of the
various Types. Benkman was happy to discover a dental procedure which allowed
him to make impressions of the palates of living birds. Although his subjects were probably not
happy to have their palates pressed into a block of dental goo, it led to a
more favorable outcome for all concerned.
In
1997, Benkman recognized that the South Hills crossbills represented a new
Type, and became interested in studying them because of the absence of
squirrels there. The lodgepole forests of the South Hills are isolated from
other squirrel-inhabited mountain ranges by large stretches of sagebrush
desert. Squirrels are major consumers of conifer seeds and in their absence,
crossbills became "the main selective agent on cone structure". The
result has been that the lodgepole cones have become larger and the scales of
the cones have become thicker, causing "reciprocal selection" for
larger-billed crossbills. Benkman terms this a "co-evolutionary arms
race".
Benkman
has proposed the scientific name Loxia sinesciuris for this potential
new species. The species name means "without squirrels". The common
name would be South Hills Crossbill. It would be the only species found only in
Idaho, and would probably generate a small cottage industry catering to rabid
listers.
The
day after Benkman's talk, listers and non-listers alike piled into vans for the
long drive to the South Hills, near the point on the map where Idaho, Nevada
and Utah come together. We drove up a small canyon cut into sagebrush-covered
hills, until at about 6000' elevation we reached the "forest",
composed of strips of lodgepole and subalpine fir along the ridge tops. As we
spilled out of the vans, we heard crossbills, but they turned out to be Type 5,
which are also present in the South Hills. Very few of
us
were able to identify the Types by ear, but Benkman was, of course, quite
familiar with them, and a teenage hotshot birder from Washington, Taylor
Brooks, was able to identify the call notes of the different Types with
confidence. Within 10 minutes, a group of Type 9, the South Hills crossbills,
flew in to feed on a nearby lodgepole, and we all had good looks and
"listens".
The
ecology of the South Hills crossbills is a result of a complex convergence of
geology, climate and biology, and now that ecology appears to be converging to
the vanishing point. Climate change is
expected
to eliminate lodgepole pine from the South
Hills
in the next 100 years, probably resulting in the extirpation of this small
population. It would be ironic
for
this population to be assigned species-level status, only to watch it become
extinct. The South Hills crossbill story suggests, though, that there have been
other isolated, specialized populations of crossbills that have become extinct
as a result of the normal climate swings in the past. We can only guess what
these dead ends may have been like.
Links
http://research.amnh.org/ornithology/crossbills/index.html
http://www.uwyo.edu/benkman/
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BIRDING PELEE ISLAND
Kris Buchler
Many would ask, “where is Pelee Island
and why would anyone want to go there?”
There are two good reasons – birds and wine! Ed and I went for the first and discovered the second. Pelee Island is the southernmost inhabited
part of Canada and is on the same latitude as Mendocino County, California, and
Rome, Italy. It is in the midst of the
warmest of the Great Lakes – Lake Erie.
The island is rich in natural beauty and enjoys an unusually lengthy and
warm growing season. It is primarily
agricultural with scattered hardwood forests and some marsh lands.
Pelee Island is located at the confluence of two migration
routes – the Atlantic Flyway and the Mississippi Flyway. It is an important stopover site for many
species and is designated as a globally \Important Bird Area (IBA), by the
Canadian partners of Birdlife International, the Canadian Nature Federation,
and Bird Studies Canada. Just north of
the island is Point Pelee, renown as a migrant trap, where thousands of spring
migrants rest, feed and recover while migrating north to breeding grounds. It attracts tens of thousands of birders
during migration. The advantage to
birding Pelee Island is the fewer numbers of spring birders due to limited
lodging and an hour and a half ferry ride to the island.
John Shipley, of Kingfisher Tours, was
our guide, as he was on two other trips we took, one to Alaska and one to S. E.
Arizona. He is well-organized, only
takes small groups (there were 6 of us) and ensures that everyone has the
opportunity to see and observe the species we are seeking. This was a trip aimed at seeing spring
warblers as well as other songbird migrants.
We tallied 22 warbler species, with excellent looks at most of
them. We didn’t find a Kirtland’s
Warbler but had many great looks at Blackburnian, Blackpoll, Bay-breasted,
Magnolia, Mourning and Tennessee, all lifers for us. We had seen the beautiful Black-throated Blue, Black-throated
Green and Chestnut-sided, in Florida as well as the Prairie and Palm
Warblers.
Our most memorable
warbler was a luminescent, yellow Prothonotary, singing from the roof of a nest
box he was claiming in a dark swamp. He
has a 
very
loud voice and I was observing two House Wrens on a nestbox in the swamp when a
flash of gold caught my eye. We
observed this bird two other days and John reported seeing it the following
week with another group of birders. It
is sad to say it had still failed to attract a female at that time.
Flycatchers
were on the move and John sharpened our observation skills in identifying them
by sight as they were not vocalizing at the beginning of our trip. Later in the week I was saved by Least
Flycatchers who began their customary “chebek, chebek, chebek". Other flycatchers on the island were Eastern
Wood-Pewee, Yellow-bellied, Willow and Eastern Phoebe.
Seeing cuckoos again was exciting. I found a Black-billed Cuckoo on the north
end of the island. It was silent as it sat
high in a tree 25 feet off-shore but its red eye was unmistakable. Ed found the Yellow-billed Cuckoo at our
lunch stop one day. It was vocalizing
but we had trouble finding it.
Feeling the pulse of the island took a couple of days. Weather is extremely important and has
dramatic effects on the movements of birds and their location on the
island. Good weather can actually
reduce the tendency of the birds to congregate and stack up
on the island. Some
winds can cause a temporary “reverse” migration where the birds fly south
again, even back to the mainland.
Our best birding spot was a trail at the northern tip of
the island. It wove through deciduous
forest tangled with vines and broken up with canals and small swamps. It exited onto a gravel beach and then
continued south again at the edge of the forest. This gave us good viewing and easy movement. We returned to this spot one to several
times a day, each time being different and producing a new bird. We also observed a fairly rare species of
turtle here – Blandings. We spent many
hours on the grounds of a large estate, walked other trails through the
interior of the island and explored the dunes of the Fish Point Nature Preserve
at the southern tip of the seven mile long island.
It is exciting to bird new areas of the country, seeing new
species and different habitats. Going
with an experienced guide increases your opportunities to see birds,
compensates for not knowing the songs of new species and can be a wonderful
learning experience with a good guide.
We were able to have a guided tour of the Pelee Island
Heritage Museum which houses a collection of historical and paleontological
artifacts. High on the list of our
group was a visit to the Pelee Island Wine Pavilion for wine tasting. The wines were quite good and all labels
featured different species of birds.
If I did this trip again, I would add two days to the trip
as well as the week on the island. I would spend one day at Point Pelee and
spend one day traveling into Michigan to find the Kirtland’s Warbler.
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Observaton
Post
2009
Kootenai County Big Year - as of October
24 is 190 -- go to our website for a complete list and see what species we
need.
1
White-throated Sparrow - September 21 - Loch Haven (Hayden) - Doug Ward
1 Red-throated Loon and
3 Surf Scoter -
October
16 and 22 - Hayden Lake - Lisa Hardy and Doug Ward
1st
fall Northern Shrike and possibly the last summer Western Bluebird October 13 - Mica Bay Survey - Kris
Buchler, Roland Craft, Janet Callen
1
Pergrine Falcon - October 24 - Schlepp Ranch (Rose Lake area) - Lisa Hardy
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MICA BAY OBSERVATION
DECK
CLEANUP
Ed Buchler
On 19 September several of us gathered to perform
maintenance on the Gertie Hansen viewing platform near Mica Bay. In about three hours we were able to trim
back brush and low limbs along the trail and reduce the height of a number of
bushes and tree limbs that had obscured the view of the lake. We also sealed all surfaces of the platform
to protect it from the weather and scrubbed down the signs. Many thanks to the following for giving up
half of their Saturday: Roland Craft, Jerry & Sharon Hanson, Keith Sturts,
Ronn & Roberta Rich, Jan Severtson, Jenny Taylor and Carrie Hugo (with Iva
Dell in a supervisory role). Special
thanks go to Roland who came before the event to clean off the deck and
afterward to give it a second coat of sealer which he generously provided.
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MINERAL POINT FIELD TRIP
September 26, 2009
Judy Waring
Three years ago Janet Callen and I
walked the Mineral Point trail south of Sandpoint on a lovely fall day. The trail
winds through a wooded hillside down to a campground overlooking Lake Pend
Oreille, a beautiful walk with the promise of good, fall migratory birding. We
decided at that time that we would like
to lead an Audubon field trip on this scenic route and after two failed
attempts we finally succeeded. On the first try we couldn’t get to the
trailhead because of the threat of fire, and the second trip was taken in a
pouring, cold rain. But this time Mother Nature smiled on us.
Eight Auduboners - Janet Callen, Mike and Val Zagar, Jan Severtson, Adela
Sussman, Roland Craft, Phil and Judy Waring - enjoyed a good walk and
identified Common Raven, American Crow, Turkey, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Hairy
Woodpecker, Winter Wren, Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Flicker, Pygmy
Nuthatch, and Osprey. (We won’t be talking about the end-of-the-day walk around
Lost Lake. Suffice to say, the lake is aptly named).
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MARIE CREEK - OCT. 17, 2009
Dick Cripe
We
could call these “Nature Walks” as well as birding trips what with forester Roland
Craft and geologist Lisa Hardy, plus the various gardeners and amateur
botanists. The Marie Creek trail is
maintained by a horse-riding group and is off limits to all motorized travel. The trail climbs for a mile over a low ridge
before dropping into the Marie Creek drainage.
The ridge supports a mixed, second-growth forest while the creek area
has very large grand fir as well as new hemlocks. The latter will eventually replace the fir and become the climax
forest. In addition to identifying birds,
we tried to identify and comprehend some of the signs of previous human
activity. We saw several birds typical
of the forest at this time of year - Black-capped Chickadee-3, Hairy
Woodpecker-1, and Pileated Woodpecker-2, 
Northern
Flicker-1, Ruffed Grouse-1, Red-breasted Nuthatch-11, Dark-eyed Junco-1, Connon
Raven-1, Winter Wren-5, American Robin-6, Red Crossbill-4, Steller's Jay-1,
and Wild Turkey-14.
The
weather was fine. It was overcast, but warm
and we all shed layers of clothes as the morning progressed. When we returned to the parking lot the rain
came, but didn't last long. We
proceeded to Wolf Lodge Bay and then Beauty Bay to check out the
waterfowl. Conditions were clear and we
were able to see quite a bit in a short time:
Mallard-2, Common Merganser-1, Common Loon-8, Horned Grebe-5, Red-necked
Grebe-1, Western Grebe-1, Double-crested Cormorant-1, Ring-billed Gull-10. Participants were Janet Callen, Roland
Craft, Lisa Hardy, Dick and Antje Cripe.
All agreed it turned out to be a fine day for this time of year and we
enjoyed getting out and hiking a bit.
