Two-barred Crossbills, Nercwys, 17 February 2014

 
I hadn't been back to my old patch at Nercwys for over a year and I was anticipating some good birding. In particular over the course of the long weekend I wanted to see some Crossbills. The various plantations on the hill have held Common Crossbills regularly since the mid/late 1980s and as a young birder my formative years involved flocks chipping and glipping overhead on what seems like an almost daily basis. Occasionally a flock would even pause and pose for close inspection although more often views were of distant birds on the topmost branches of some great larch or spruce. Very rarely I would see birds in the lower branches - such as when newly fledged young with uncrossed bills were being fed in some scrubby saplings. This weekend was going to be different, though. Not only, was I going to get my first decent views of Crossbills for over a year, but I was also going to search the Nercwys flocks for a rarer straggler - a Parrot Crossbill or even a Two-barred Crossbill. An influx of both species into the UK this winter fueled my optimism - the latter species had already been recorded in Norfolk, Gloucestershire, South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. In addition, since the views from Nercwys extend for 60-100 miles to the North and East I reckoned that there was a good chance that a rare irrupting Crossbill could not help but end up there.

Sunday morning was my first opportunity. A beautiful day, but I did not have much time to search. As the spruce seemed to be devoid of cones I concentrated on larch hoping to find some feeding birds. Disappointingly I only had four Crossbills and they were brief in-flight views. Intriguingly two of the silhouettes had calls that did not strike me as typical and a quick listen to XenoCanto seemed to indicate that they might have been Two-barred. So, nothing concrete but an encouraging enough start to free up time on Monday to have a proper go. After a quick breakfast I was out on Monday at an earlier time than the day before. A much duller day, with heavy skies, I cursed not having spent more time birding the day before. Almost immediately though a flock came over and checking out the larches as I went I headed in the same direction. Instead as I reached the top of the hill a flock of about 20 swirled up from the top of a nearby pine and descended again. I hopped over the gate and pushed along a track to an area with scattered pines. The Common Crossbills were systematically nipping off pine cones and were feeding away contentedly. I settled down to take photos with the aim of trying to pick out a Parrot. The flock was remarkably quiet at times - at times I was watching the wings of the pine seeds floating down to the ground and thinking how easy it would be to miss the birds once they are settled. After about 30 minutes they seemed to become jittery and most of the flock flew to the top of a western hemlock before selecting another pine tree as their next feeding station.

At this point I noticed that they had been joined by a bird with wingbars. With a sudden increase in excitement my photo rate rocketed as I alternated between shooting pics and grilling the bird through binocs. I could see a pair of great wingbars but no tertial spots so I was suddenly filled with horror that the apparent Two-barred Crossbill might be a wing-barred Common or even worse a hybrid... At that point I realised that there were two birds - as the bird had appeared to change sex as I watched it! From my photos it can be seen that there were 3 birds in this tree - and the tertial spots (which are easily worn) are present on one of the females. After 5 minutes the whole flock lifted into the air calling loudly. In flight there were apparently four Two-barred Crossbills - they are noticeably smaller - I only knowingly saw 2 birds while perched, but having seen a third in the pictures I am happy that all of these smaller birds would have been the same species.

Despite my best efforts for the remainder of the day and a few hours on Tuesday morning I could not relocate the birds. Remarkably, there have only been two previous records of Two-barred Crossbill in Wales - ironically, if I had known that I may not have tried looking for them! So, not only a life/self-found/British/Welsh tick for me, but also a new bird for the Flintshire list!

Birding while gardening: Crossbills and hunting Peregrine!

Yesterday's clear skies tempted me out into the garden and I spent the day rejuvenating various raised beds for this year's growing season. I was trimming back leggy herbs when I was startled to hear the explosive 'jip' call of Crossbills. An almost daily experience on my North Wales patch but only the second time I've seen them from the garden here in Edinburgh (single bird 5 July 2010) - another real garden rarity hot on the heels of yesterday's Snow Bunting and Fulmar! As I stood up the flock of 9 Crossbills passed low over the houses and then headed off down the hill giving me a nice view of a selection of red, green and yellowish rumps bobbing away into the distance. The Hermitage of Braid looked like a possible destination, although of course they may not have stopped...

For much of the day my head was down as I worked on the soil, but in general the sky seemed lacking in birdlife. With the wind direction slowly swinging to northerly, the clear blue skies, cold air and warm sun seemed an odd combination for this time of year. It was not until late afternoon that raptor activity hotted up. Several Common Buzzards in the air included some hanging fairly low over the garden and a couple in the distance indulging in aerial display. A single Sparrowhawk sighting over the course of the day must rank as one of the lowest hawk-per-minute sighting ratios from the garden. Best of all was something that I have never seen before from here - a Peregrine at full speed hunting pace directly overhead, and then just failing to hit a feral pigeon. Half an hour later it was overhead lugging prey - clearly persistence pays off (see top photo).

Common Crossbill on Sanday

Mountain biking this morning at Glentress, in the Borders, and the spruce trees seemed to be full of Common Crossbills. We watched two birds at close range perching on one of the poetry-inscribed stones at the edge of the red trail. One looked a typical female type but the other was a lovely (young male?) with pale body feathers and a bright yellow rump. I was wishing that I had binoculars or camera with me - although they might not have been very helpful at other moments...

I grew up with Common Crossbills being regular birds in the trees around the house and, as a result, they are one of my favourite birds. While flocks were seen on a seemingly daily basis, and prolonged views of feeding birds could be had regularly, it was a rare event that really good close views could be obtained.

Strangely, after a childhood surrounded by conifers, my best ever view of a feeding Common Crossbill was on the virtually tree-less Isle of Sanday, Orkney, in the summer of 2009.

We had just arrived at a cottage that we had rented for the week at the Peedie Sea and to welcome us a Common Crossbill flew in to watch me unpack the car boot. It appeared to be a second year male, as it was pretty red but also showed quite a number of immature feathers, and it also showed a thin but distinct wing bar caused by narrow pale fringes on the greater coverts. After sitting on the fence for a while it was soon tucking into grass seed and it fed in the area on and off for the next few days. Hopefully it made landfall elsewhere later in a more suitable habitat...