The Deskbound Birder: Parrot Crossbill, Wishmoor Bottom, Berkshire

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Parrot Crossbill, Wishmoor Bottom, Berkshire - 3rd January 2018

While in India news broke of several flocks of Parrot Crossbill in the UK including 28 at Santon Warren, Norfolk, six at Upper Hollesley Common, Suffolk and 16 at Wishmoor Bottom, Berkshire/Surrey. Remarkably all of these flocks were found on 26th November. Parrot Crossbill is a World tick for me and so I was keen to visit one of these flocks. Unfortunately, with end of year staff reviews and then Christmas I had no time to visit but today I had a couple of hours before a bird survey. I was on site by 07:30, walked to the location described by Birdguides and waited. The weather was dreadful with Storm Eleanor still in the process of passing and hammering much of the UK. The winds on site were around force 6-7 and the light levels were very low. At around 08:30 I picked up a flock of birds in flight which turned out to be the Parrot Crossbill flock, 12 birds in total. I followed these birds for the next 1.5 hours as they showed fairly well on and off mainly feeding in the tops of the Oak and Scot's Pine. The birds were fairly active frequently flying from tree to tree and giving a distinctive call when in flight or about to take flight. The light was poor and so my photographs are not so good but here is a selection, each photo depicts a different individual.