The Bill

An old sketch done in the field at Harwood Forest....

On Friday morning as I left the house for work, a familiar call greeted me. Several calls actually, with lots of chip, clip etc sounding like an aviary, I glanced up to see a nice party of 13 Crossbills circling and bobbing in flight overhead. It looked like they had come from the pines near the village hall and were moving off North. Crossbills are seen most years on the patch here, except for 2014. The best time is from around June and I fancied this would be another blank due to this late date, but they can occur at any time.

141. Crossbill