This is very welcome. A persisting cold, northerly airflow has brought about the most significant incursion of Parrot Crossbill into England since the winter of 2013/14. Over the past seven days up to 30 birds have been observed daily at Santon Warren in the Norfolk Brecklands. I had half a mind to visit them this week but on Sunday (26th) a second flock of 16 was found on military training land adjacent to Sandhurst Academy in Berkshire, just an hour from home. So today I went for the latter in company with Ewan and these birds put on quite a show.

It is unusual to find the species so far south. This is one of two Crossbills from north-west European Pine forests that reach Great Britain usually in small numbers during cold spells, the other being Two-barred Crossbill. Four years ago there was a minor irruption of both species into England. Then it took four attempts before I eventually nailed a Two-barred flock in the Forest of Dean, Glos in January 2014. But I connected with another long staying flock of Parrot Crossbill at the first time of asking in Sherwood Forest, Notts over the Christmas period that winter. Since then these hardy and stylish finches have held a special fascination for me and the opportunity to experience one of them again so close to home was not to be missed.

Who’s a pretty boy then? Parrot Crossbill on the Thames Basin Heaths

Parrot Crossbill resembles the more often seen Common Crossbill in plumage, but is 25 – 40% bulkier with a somewhat bigger head and larger, thicker bill. The former is described as front heavy and bull-necked and I think the individual pictured below, left today might well agree with that. They really do look like little Parrots and sometimes behave like them too, hanging upside down to feed on the seeds from Pine cones for instance. The call is less clipping and more mellow than Common Crossbill and we heard this several times as our birds moved as a flock from tree to tree.

Parrot Crossbill (male)

… and the same in oils

Wishmoor Bottom is part of Swinley Forest, a substantial area of the Thames Basin Heaths SPA lying between Bracknell and Camberley. The site, also known as Barossa reserve, is MoD owned and managed by the Surrey Wildlife Trust. Much of the habitat is Pine and native deciduous woodland interspersed with open lowland heath containing gorse, birch, mires and bogs. Though a training area for the nearby Royal Military Academy there is open public access to much of the site.

The bird interest here, depending on the season includes heathland specialties such as Dartford Warbler, Firecrest, Nightjar, Woodlark, Stonechat and Common Redstart. And the habitat is just made for wintering Shrikes and Crossbills. So there is no reason why the present visitors should not remain for longer given the abundant food supply evidenced today. Pine seeds are these birds almost exclusive diet.

Birders watching Parrot Crossbill at Wishmoor Bottom

We reached site (above) at around 10:45am parking at the northern end of King’s Ride (SU875620), a MoD Housing Estate then walking due north. The directions from there on RBA had been quite precise and we soon located a group of around 15 birders in the area that the Parrot Crossbill were favouring. As we arrived the birds were gathered in an especially easy to view tree, after which they moved around the vicinity at intervals and the birders all followed. What unfolded offered a fascinating insight into the feeding habits of these alluring Scandinavian visitors.

We remained here for just over two hours. Over that period the birds relocated several times, showing well in the tops of Pine trees. It was noticeable how they snipped off the small cones they were harvesting with their powerful bills, sometimes then holding them aloft before pinning them down to extract the seeds from. When not feeding they would just sit calmly and watch, blending into their surroundings. This adult male (below) did so rather more openly, attracting all the lenses present. What an absolute beauty!

Adult male Parrot Crossbill surveying its surroundings (above and below)

The rust-red and grey males stood out more while the grey-green, smaller-billed females were well camouflaged. Viewed front on these birds have a distinctly broader head than Common Crossbills, while large-billed individuals seem to lack a forehead and display a flat crown. The beady eyes seem a little incongruous in such an imposing head.

Parrot Crossbills

Adult male

Adult male

First year male

Female

Conditions were mostly overcast so not well suited to photography. Digiscoping is always a crude solution in the field and the images in this post were gained with a certain amount of cursing. My results were all what might be termed “soft focus” though they convey how these Crossbills were seen. As ever I make no pretence of being a bird photographer, merely a birder who takes pictures to record what I see. The number of photos included in this post, from 42 saved out of 330+ taken, perhaps serves to illustrate just how easy (relatively) these superb birds were to observe today, not something that can usually be said of Crossbills.

How will their pictures compare with my own?

This had been by any standards a superb experience and if the Parrot Crossbill linger I may well come back and spend more time with them this winter. This intriguing site also struck me as well worth checking out for insects in summer, not to mention speciality breeding birds. If only we had some of this habitat in Oxfordshire.

This seemed worth a look. Not only is it unusual for a wintering Horned Lark to turn up at an inland location, but this particular bird is being cited as a probable north American sub-species. The 50-minute bijou twitchette involved was also an enjoyable way to fill a perfectly bright and clear Sunday morning prior to my 3 – 11 pm shift.

Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris), of which Shorelark (E a flava) more usually occurs in Great Britain, are found worldwide across the northern hemisphere. My own researches having now seen the bird reveal there are no less than 42 recognised sub-species. The Staines bird is believed to be one of three migratory sub-species that make up the bulk of Canada’s breeding population. Normally these winter in the south of that vast country and the northern United States. Given a midweek change to a northerly air flow, RBA had predicted a Nearctic passerine would be the ensuing days’ likely prize and this bird was it.

If Oxford’s Farmoor Reservoir is a bleak concrete bowl as some deride it, then today’s location (pictured below, left) is rather more deserving of that description. In the late 1980s, when I worked for a marketing company near Heathrow, I would sometimes spend lunch breaks here as an escape from the office environment. My only visit since then was to record a first Wilson’s Phalarope in September 1997. Today I arrived on site just before 11am and joined a line of birders at the western end of the central causeway between two reservoir basins.

Staines Reservoir (north basin)

The bird in question is believed to be a Hoyt’s Horned Lark (E a hoyti). Today it was feeding along the western edge of the northern reservoir basin (below the pylon) in the habitat pictured above, right. Like previously experienced Shorelarks this bird was creeping in its habits and kept in cover of the dried out vegetation much of the time. Even at the range from which I was watching it stood out as being much darker toned than those past English east coast Shorelark records. This is also readily apparent in the limited number of photographs published so far on RBA (see here).

I will not attempt to go into plumage detail of the different alpestris sub-species, even supposing I possessed it. Suffice to say that in researching this intentionally brief post I have uncovered a vast amount of taxonomic data. In due course the great and good of the rarities committees will no doubt publish a decision as to this intriguing individual’s exact taxa.

In the circumstances getting a picture myself was impossible. But fortunately I know a man who had been here a day earlier at a time when the Horned Lark settled on the bank of the causeway beneath just a few birders. Ewan’s observations on the plumage detail are also highly pertinent, so I will refer my readers to his excellent post (here) rather than make second hand interpretations of my own.

Probable Hoyt’s Horned Lark

© and courtesy of Ewan Urquhart

Sunday was the fourth consecutive crisp and clear winter day since the prevailing weather pattern altered on 23rd. Much of November prior to that had been as dull as the birding that the mild westerly conditions produced. My immediate reaction upon the change was to check out thoroughly the Oxon location where I had come across my first Hawfinch of the current irruption at the start of the month (see previous post). I had been back to the Nettlebed Estate in the east of the county twice more in the interim, seeing three more Hawfinch on 10th.

This latest re-visit started well when the first Chaffinch flock I came across contained a splendid male Brambling, but that was the only winter finch encountered through five hours searching. I walked a circular route from SU707840, and then a shorter one within it to cover all the rights of way at the western end of this extensive parkland, but saw no more Hawfinches. This was very enjoyable walking country nonetheless.

Hawfinch site near Eynsham, Oxon

Through last week the centre of attention in the county switched to another location to the west of Oxford. Up to 30 Hawfinch have been watched regularly at Barnard Gate (SP400106), the southern end of another estate Eynsham Hall Park. Like Nettlebed, and Great Hampden in Bucks where I enjoyed my best recent Hawfinch experience (see previous post), this Oxon location is an extensive area of parkland in which the birds feed in Hornbeam trees.

I went to Barnard Gate once late in the day on 20th seeing just one perched treetop bird. My heart sunk upon arrival as I realised the viewing distance involved. But at the weekend some Oxon birding colleagues obtained the best images yet to emerge during the current ongoing event (see here). The glut of Hawfinch sightings across southern England shows no sign of abating and looks set to remain the main feature of regional birding interest this winter. But the stray American Horned Lark has provided a most pleasant and interesting diversion.

As anyone with an interest in birds is now aware, England and the south in particular is currently experiencing a remarkable irruption of migratory Hawfinch. The continued westerly weather pattern might have scuppered my national birding plans as October played itself out. But from the middle of the month what the overall picture lacked in terms of scarcities became offset in part by the opportunity to experience these charismatic but elusive finches in places where they are not usually seen.

The downside is the vast majority of the plethora of sightings on RBA have been fly overs, qualified by annotations such as “over to S” or “low SW”. Locating and viewing settled birds has been quite a different proposition. Surely they are out there somewhere since so many birds cannot be merely passing through. In Oxfordshire an initial trickle of records really took off on Saturday 28th. These were all from what I would term meticulous bird finders, dedicated patch workers realising the opportunity to record Hawfinch passing through their home villages, and those with the ability to identify specks in the sky on call.

“If you’re pointing that at me I don’t do in focus.” … “That’s OK Mr Hawfinch, neither do I.”

A very informative article has appeared on Oxon Birding (see here) explaining the practice of “vis-migging”, devotees of which scan the skies from one point for long periods to record over-flying migration. This is not a style of birding that has any appeal to myself but is clearly how most current observations nationally and in the county are being made. So when records began to snowball eight days ago I saw little point in chasing after other people’s sightings and set out to look for Hawfinch in my own village.

The old part of Garsington (SP581025) atop a geological ridge east of Oxford, seems made for Hawfinches. In particular there are good numbers of Yew trees around the place, especially in St Mary’s church yard (pictured below). I first made my way uphill from the shanty town at first light on Sunday 29th, my collar turned up and cap pulled down to avoid recognition as a “Parky”, and have ventured back twice since. But to date success has eluded me. The church yard is nonetheless quite a birdy place and always a relaxing spot to while away some time.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After drawing blank a second time on the misty morning of Thursday 1st I received a call from Tom, “The Wickster” who fancied an afternoon off work to search for Hawfinch in the Chilterns. This was the arrangement we enjoyed in the halcyon days of 2012 and 2013, me as driver and he as guide, that was in no small part responsible for my best ever county totals of those years. More recently Tom has preferred to do most of his county birding on foot, but had already added a flyover to his famed “walking list”. Hence it was game on and I knew this would be my best opportunity to find Hawfinch in Oxfordshire this autumn.

I had experienced the species previously at classic sites in the Weald, New Forest and Forest of Dean, as well as in Spain. Hawfinch was also on my Oxon life list, but one sighting at Stonesfield Common had been distant and the second at Blenheim Park fleeting. So this was the last county bird over which all doubt in my mind needed to be removed. There are large tracts of under-watched woodland in south-east Oxfordshire that I had already decided to make the prime focus of my local birding this coming winter, and this was also where Tom felt there must be settled Hawfinch flocks at present.

At the first selected site we found nothing. Tom kept saying we needed to find vantage points to scan over the surrounding woodland and I took the opportunity to enquire what an aerial specialist describes as flying “low”. The answer is apparently tree top height … hmmm! So we moved on and I headed up an unmade road towards a location with the intriguing name of Lower Highmoor (SU704850). When my passenger said this route would probably fizzle out I replied we could turn around if it did. Then he announced: “That would be a good point to scan from just over there.” And without those two inputs we would not have been successful.

First we saw a finch-like flock alighting into a conifer at around 300 metres distance. Tom hoped they might be Crossbill but careful inspection confirmed they were Greenfinch. My expectations having been thus raised then dashed I went for a comfort break, that after all can be one way of making something happen. Just as I was making the personal re-adjustment Tom called excitedly: “Hawfinch!”, and in his words I “almost ran” back to where he was standing. There in my scope, a little nearer than the conifers were three perched birds in a tree above the garden of an isolated house. Mission was thus accomplished in no uncertain terms.

When these birds disappeared from view we walked up to the house but there was no further sign of them. Tom then got back into his element scanning the tree line of Nettlebed Woods on the horizon where he picked out eight more Hawfinch in flight. But I was more than pleased, elated even with what we had already seen. On the way home we stopped at a site Tom knows to observe Grey Partridge that has been a bogey local bird for me this year. Hence, if I were to be Oxon year listing in 2017 I would have moved one ahead of last year’s total, and eight short of those 2012/13 figures. A Water Pipit at Farmoor Reservoir on Saturday 4th, by no means an annual county bird, reduced that deficit further.

We appear to have put Lower Highmoor on the local birding map, because a number of other Oxon birders visited over the next three days. But their sightings were mostly of distant, tree-top Hawfinch or more fly overs. For myself I preferred to go in search of further perched birds and so yesterday (5th) made a covert crossing of the county border into the murky reaches of neighbouring Bucks. Near Great Hampden, a little east of the Chilterns escarpment above Princes Risborough, a roving flock of up to 30 birds had been reported in the interval. These were said at times to be offering good views and so it turned out.

The kale field and Hornbeams

“Me neither”

“No chance from that range, mate”

Hawfinch (male): “I don’t do in focus either”

This was not an easy location to find. From a corner of a minor road a bridleway leads through the private estate of Hampden House and past a church, on the far side of which lies a kale field (SP843025) containing clumps of mature Hornbeam that the Hawfinch were frequenting. When I arrived on site other people were leaving, the birds they were watching having just flown off. That left me and one other birder to await their next circuit, then after around 15 minutes my companion pointed to the tree tops above where I was standing. There was the perched male that appears at the beginning of this post (thanks to Ewan for gender ID).

More self-found Hawfinch then flew into the tall Hornbeams in the top left picture (above) and a pleasant 20 minutes or so ensued as, now alone I observed them feeding. This second good experience in four days was an unusual opportunity to view what are generally known as shy and difficult birds going about their infrequently seen business just 20 miles from home. When several more birders arrived things at once became less enjoyable and in any case it was time to leave.

Hawfinch records from southern England, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, 25-31 October 2017. © BirdGuides.com

If Hawfinch are to be a continuing  feature of local birding this winter I will hope for more encounters such as those described here, and not least right here in Garsington. In the short hours of daylight I will be out there looking, though not too high in the sky.