Sunday December 20 - more Crossbill action and ringing results

News that the ringers were setting up at Morgrove Coppice today led to a small diversion down the road, where I was optimistic we would have a chance to see the wintering Crossbill flock. Last week Mark C had counted five there.

Initially it looked fairly quiet and we picked our way through a small Tit/Goldcrest party hoping for something more exciting. After about 30 minutes we heard distant Crossbill calls, and Dave picked up a party of six as they flew into the pines. I soon spotted a pair, and then two adult males before they took off and flew southwards. On this occasion I definitely saw four birds.

A male Crossbill

Where the other week I had been uncertain of the sex of the bird I photographed, there was no doubt that this one was a male.

The best way to find these Crossbills is by latching onto their calls. A single bird makes a rather squeaky "kyip" call, and when a party get together they all call at once so you get a jumble of excitement calls. Its all very well telling you this, but what you really need is a bit of footage of a calling bird, and I'm pleased to say that 15 minutes after the first group had moved on, a single female arrived and perched (silhouetted unfortunately) in a deciduous tree. Game on.

It immediately started giving the "kyip" call which can be heard in this brief extract.

We went to find the ringers. They seemed quite content with their morning and had been catching a small selection of common woodland birds. Eventually we were able to point out another Crossbill as it appeared from the south, although it was always high up. So we may have recorded eight Crossbills altogether, and it wouldn't surprise me if there are even more in the area.

We returned to Morton Bagot to complete the morning, our arrival coinciding with the first shower clouds and sure enough we got wet. At least seven Stonechats were spotted on our circuit, a decent count for mid-winter.

A female Stonechat

The flash field was OK; 36 Teal, six Shovelers, 27 Mallard, 10 Lapwings, and 12 visible Snipe. I would also say that there are slightly more Fieldfares, Redwings, and Starlings around than is often the case in late December, maybe 220 birds all told.

It looks like lock-down mark two is just over the horizon. Thank goodness for wildlife.

Speaking of which, I can now add the results of the ringers' labours, kindly supplied by Tony Kelly.

They caught 35 birds as follows:

Long-tailed Tit - 1

Coal Tit - 1 (a retrap)

Blue Tit - 15

Great Tit - 7

Goldcrest - 2

Wren - 5

Blackbird - 1

Robin - 1

Dunnock - 1

Chaffinch - 1

The Coal Tit had previously been caught at Middle Spernal, a couple of miles away.

I particularly like a photo they took of the two Goldcrests in the hand. 

Goldcrests - per Tony Kelly

These are a female and a male. The female seems quite relaxed, while the male is flaring his crest showing the stunning flame-coloured centre to his crown indicating he is distinctly irritated. They usually do this when they see another male Goldcrest, and I'm guessing he saw his reflection in the camera lens.