Last Thursday I looked ahead at the weather forecast, and realized that yesterday, Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, would finally have strong NW winds with clear skies and cool temperatures. In my mind, this meant the fall southward bird migration would kick in with a vengeance. I was pleased when the BirdCast tool from Cornell University also predicted heavy bird movement. Here is the screenshot I took off Birdcast for Koochiching the day prior to my bird outing.

With this information, yesterday morning I arrived at Toomey-Williams Forest Road 20 minutes after sunrise. Note the 38F temperature reading. My location is just south Minnesota’s border with Canada.

Now the best part … man alive had the birds been busy migration the previous night. The forests were full of our feathered friends. However, the best sighting for me were 250+ White-Winged Crossbills. I had already noticed as I approached the forest road that the local pine trees were loaded with cones. Crossbills are constantly on the move around the northern Boreal forest in search of pine cones. These birds have a unique hooked beak that allows them to pry open cones. White-Winged Crossbills will even mate and nest in the middle of the winter if the local pine cone/seed supply is abundant.

I found my huge flock of crossbills right where Hendrickson Road splits off from Toomey-Williams Forest Road (GPS Link). For over 45 minutes I walked and visited with these unique birds!

White-Winged Crossbills in Minnesota’s Pine Island State Forest (video link of crossbills “gritting up” for email subscribers)

And a few pics … the males are red … the females drab greenish yellow. Most people never see Crossbills in their life. These are a bird of the northern boreal forest which implies wilderness far from any population centers. Please understand spending a long time with white-winged crossbills is much more rare for me than all my visits with Great Gray Owls. I was excited! In fact, I also ran over a Spruce Grouse. Given all the pine cones, I was constantly scanning the tree tops for crossbills, and even though I was only driving 4 to 5 mph, I almost ran over a Spruce Grouse (dumb birds!).