Took another opportunity to see Parrot Crossbills. This time at Holt Country Park in Norfolk. The birds had been showing well from the car park for several days and the temptation proved too great. I missed them in the car park by hour an hour. Sound familiar? A number of birders turned up but the birds didnt. We waited for a couple of hours until somebody drove in to say the flock had been seen a mile or so away. The car park emptied and cars drove in convoy to reassemble in a field a mile away. There was a good view of the various stands of conifers spread out over both sides of the road but many were quite distant. I spotted a small flock of Crossbills flying towards the roadside pines but they were soon lost to view. After checking the pines on one side of the road I walked back to the other side and found four or five Crossbills in the furthest pine in the roadside trees nearest to us. After calling the other birders over,with telescopes we were able to confirm that they were indeed Parrot Crossbill and that there were probably 10 birds feeding in the pines.
Parrot Crossbill, Holt Country Park, Norfolk - very distant image giving some idea of the size, shape of the bill
Common Crossbill - Cannock Chase, comparison of bill size
Two barred Crossbill, South Yorkshire
No comments:
Post a Comment