I was nominated drive today
and Roger and I picked Dave up from Newton Harcourt and then went to Uppingham
where we met Ken. With a full car we set
of for Lynford Arboretum where there had been up to four Two-barred Crossbills
over the last few days. The weather was
pretty awful at times with several heavy downpours but it was dry as we pulled
into the car park. We walked the short
distance to where three other birders were looking for the birds and they had
seen several Common Crossbills but not any of the Two-barred Crossbills. We heard crossbills calling on several
occasions and saw several as they flew over.
Six then landed in a larch tree and began feeding but they were very
difficult to observe but they were all just Common Crossbill. We had been there just over an hour when two
more flew over calling and one landed at the top of a larch, it was one of the
juvenile Two-barred Crossbills and it provided good views for perhaps a couple
of minutes before it eventually flew off to the east. It called several times as it flew off and
sounded different from Common Crossbill.
We stayed for another
forty-five minutes but no crossbills were seen or heard and we decided to move
off to Titchwell. There had been up to
ten Siskin observed and a single Buzzard flew over, whilst a second raptor
quite close but just a silhouette and all too brief remained unidentified.
We stopped at Choseley Barns
for lunch where there appeared to be little, if any food, on the ground and
subsequently few birds as well. We did
have a male and female harrier to the south and two females to the north during
our short stay.
Having parked at Titchwell we
set off towards the sea and found a female Mandarin, six juvenile Red-crested
Pochard on the Thornham Pool and a Bearded Tit flew over. As we approached the Freshwater Marsh it was
clear that there were plenty of waders, mainly Avocet and Black-tailed Godwits
but there was also a few Ruff and at least fifteen Spotted Redshanks. As we scanned the area we also found two Little
Ringed Plovers, three Knot, a summer plumaged Curlew Sandpiper, two Dunlin, a
Curlew, a Green Sandpiper, a Wood Sandpiper and a couple of Redshanks. There were also seven Spoonbills visible on
one of the distant islands and a female Marsh Harrier flew over causing some
panic, when nine Golden Plover flew over.
Before the harrier flew over there were quite a few terns and gulls on
one of the islands, the terns being mainly Common but there was also four
Sandwich and there was also a single first-summer Little Gull.
We eventually continued
towards the beach but there was very little on the Volunteer Marsh but three
first-summer Little Gulls on the tidal marsh provided some good photo
opportunities.
When we eventually reached the
beach there was at least 300 Knot amongst which there were good numbers of
Bar-tailed Godwits and Curlew and small numbers of Turnstone. There were two Black Terns amongst numerous
Common and Sandwich Terns feeding over the sea and five Little Terns flew
west. A single male Common Scoter was
observed on the sea and five more flew by.
A single Greenshank over and eight Grey Plover flew west. Eventually we had to call it a day and walked
back to the car park but saw nothing new on the return.
The Two-barred Crossbill was
my third the last being in Wakerley Wood in November 1990. It had been the highlight of a very good and
enjoyable day’s birding.
Female/juvenile Red-crested Pochard
Adult Spotted Redshank
Male Ruff
Adult Herring Gull
First-summer Little Gull
First-summer Little Gull
First-summer Little Gull
First-summer Little Gull
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