Monday, January 28, 2008




Above - Some poor attempts at Crossbill photography. Birds miles away, wind blowing the tripod about.

A bright day today, breezy with a SW4.

I thought I would use the bright weather as an opportunity to go back to Harwood to photograph the Crossbills seen last week. Nothing is ever that straight forward though. The spot where the birds were showing well was devoid of birds, so I walked about three miles only seeing about a dozen fly overs. One male sang from the top of the tallest tree in the forest and a female was down on the track in front of the car, so close,that to stop running over it I had to get out of the car and move it on! Its a shame I couldn't get that close to one when I had the camera set up.

The birds above were part of a group of 8 coming down for grit in the middle of a clear felled area about a hundred metres away.

Also seen in the forest were 1 Brambling, 20+ Siskins, 3 Great spotted Woodpeckers and 4 Buzzards.

Two walks at Boulmer today had the adult Peregrine at the north end harassing waders on the rocks before it landed in a field, 92 Curlews in the pond field and 5 Magpies ws a good number here. A Kestrel,4 Red breasted Mergansers, a pair of Stonechats and a couple of Rock Pipits summed up the day.

1 comment:

The Wessex Reiver said...

Well done for having a go, birding in coniferous woods is always entertaining..last Crossbills I saw were at Hardy's Monument in Dorset, 2 years ago, howling gale so we were in car with ice cream. They flew into tree 20 feet away. As ever, no bins or camera but proof of the right place right time theory!!