Todays original plan was a trip to Wales for the Western Orphean Warbler. Tony S had kindly volunteered to drive, however, his missus over-ruled him. Neither myself, Paul or Brendan fancied the long drive so that plan was kicked into touch. So Brendan stayed at home whilst Paul and myself headed for Holt Country Park in search of Parrot Crossbills. On arrival the car park was really full with birders patiently waiting for any Crossbills to fly into the conifers surrounding the car park. We waited for about an hour but nothing was doing. We decided to head off to the pond. Parrot Crossbills had been reported here previously. We joined some other birders who had assembled on a small hill just past the pond and after a short while a small flock of about 10 Crossbills flew into an Oak tree. Unfortunately no Parrots were amongst them. We went back to the car park again and while we were there two or three car loads of birders seemed to leave in a bit of a hurry. A birder near us spoke to the driver of the last car to leave, asking if they had some news? They told him they were giving up on the Parrot Crossbills and were off to Cley. We hung around for a few more minutes then decided to head back towards the pond. On route we spoke to someone who had information that a female Parrot Crossbill had been seen just down the road at Holt Lowes. This wasn't the reason the other birders left the car park in such a hurry? They would have spread the news, surely?! Anyway, we decided to walk to the area where the Parrot Crossbill had been seen. We joined about 20 other birders and were told that a male Parrot Crossbill was showing well at the very top of a fairly close conifer. We were straight onto it and well pleased with a new bird for us both. Then someone picked out a younger male and female type Parrot Crossbill. There were about a dozen Crossbills in the same conifer but I could only get decent views of 4 or 5. To be honest looking through my scope most looked like Parrots to me, thick-billed, bull necked.......... After a while the flock flew out of the conifer and into a dead tree in an open area, where they perched briefly before flying off and out of view.
From here Paul and myself decided to head for Salthouse and then Cley in the hope of Black Brant and Pale-bellied Brent Goose. Nothing doing at Salthouse so we moved a short distance up the coast to Cley. At Cley we viewed a large flock of Brent Geese, Pale-bellied and the Black Brant were in this flock we were informed. We were looking in the area the Pale-bellied Brents had been seen one someone said they had the Black Brant. We turned our attentions to the Brant but before we could get on it it went behind some kind of run down brick structure. We were waiting for it to come into view when news reached us of a Red-breasted Flycatcher about half a mile from where we were standing. Of course we headed straight over to the beach car park and then towards the pill box. We spoke to a couple of birders who had seen the bird but they said it had not been seen for about 15 minutes. One birder had some decent photo's and was well pleased! We waited for 30 or 40 minutes in this area but no Red-breasted Flycatcher. Whilst here everything on the fields went up including the large flock of Brent Geese we were looking at previously. The Brent Geese settled down in the field next to where they were previously. We decided to give up on the Red-breasted Flycatcher and finish our day by going through the geese looking for the Pale-bellied or the Brant. Neither us or several other birders could locate them, there was another more distant flock, perhaps that's where they were? The first six images below are my Parrot Crossbills at Holt Lowes and then Paul's Parrot Crossbills at Holt Lowes, Coal Tit and Marsh Tit near the visitor centre at Holt Country Park.
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Paul's Parrot Crossbills-Holt Lowes |
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| Coal Tit-Holt Country Park-Paul Frost |
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| Marsh Tit-Holt Country Park-Paul Frost |
Hi Sharpy, I would say that the birds you photographed certainly show the characteristics of Parrot Crossbill, both male and female give the impression of having very thick necks. The head on the male bird looks very flat although the angle of the bird gives a slight peaked appearance which isn't abnormal if you google other images taken of this species. The bill shape also looks squat compared to the slimmer features of Common Crossbill. Well done as I blanked on this species when in Sweden this year.
ReplyDeleteThanks Paul, On reflection I'm sure all the birds we saw were Parrots.
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