Staring up trees! 17-18th November.

During the week I had got wind of a couple of special species of birds, in terms of Oxon birding anyway , that had been showing well locally. So with a whole weekend to spare, I am beginning to like the international breaks in the football, and a really good weather forecast for a change, I hatched a plan, with help from my good mate Jim who provided detailed directions to each site, to get them in.

Common Crossbills are always good birds to see and are very localised in Oxfordshire, mainly because the county lacks the large conifer forests that the birds tend to be associated with. I've found a couple in Blenheim Park before and seen some on the Chiltern ridge but have had most sightings of  these specialised fir cone feeders in Scotland and Wales. A small flock of Crossbills had been showing well in a mixed woodland, Buckland Warren near Faringdon, for the last couple of weeks so we chose to go in search of them on Saturday morning.  At the parking area we had met fellow Oxon birder and very skilled photographer, Steve (aka The Tall Birder) who was also in pursuit of the Crossbills, although he recounted that he'd been here the week before without any success. The walk to the wood was easy along a level farm track and we found the favoured Larch trees easily. We'd already heard Crossbills chipping away overhead so were very hopeful of a quick and easy fix but nearly an hour and a half later of staring up trees and seeing nothing we were becoming rather anxious! Not quite nothing since a couple of Sparrowhawks had been present on and off, no doubt not helping in our quest to see the Crossbills, and large flocks of Fieldfare were passing overhead. There was also a good sized flock of Siskins around and they would frequently drop into the larches and pick seeds out of the cones. I had been told that the Crossbills were associating with the Siskins but at this stage they had obviously had a tiff and fallen out with each other.

Siskin

Sparrowhawk

Mrs Caley and I went wandering while Steve remained sat in his birding easy chair, I often wish I carried a seat around with me then these bloody feet of mine might not hurt so much! There is a beautiful Yew tree tunnel that the track passes through and I wondered if any Hawfinches found it during last years invasion of those big billed finches. There were Mistle Thrushes and Redwing enjoying the Yew berries but it's so dark when under the trees that it's a job to see anything clearly let alone photograph any of them. A couple of very bold Muntjac Deer eyed us up but hardly seemed in the slightest bit bothered by our presence, they must be used to people walking past here. On exiting the Yew tunnel towards the way we had come, we became alerted to the calls of the Crossbills once more and looking up saw about a dozen fly over heading in the direction of the larch trees where we'd been looking before! We hurried back and asked Steve if he'd seen them land anywhere. His response was negative so we assumed that they must have flown off to a different part of the woods. I concentrated my efforts at a couple of trees that were close to some puddles reasoning that the Crossbills may want to drink at some point, as they are very prone to do, since their diet of cone seeds requires a lot of water to aid digestion. Mrs Caley called from further up the track, "I've got some!" and I scurried up to join her just in time to see two Crossbill sized birds fly off further into the trees. Bugger! Another fruitless ten minutes of searching the most likely looking trees and I was off wandering again but this time I had only gone a few yards when Mrs Caley called me back once more. There feeding quietly in one of the larch trees was a female Crossbill! Hallelujah and thank goodness for my good lady wife!

female Crossbill

Once found Crossbills are fairly easy to observe since they stay fairly still in the trees gorging on the cone seeds. Common Crossbills are the smallest and most dainty (but still big in finch terms) of our UK Crossbill species, we also have Scottish (if you subscribe to some taxonomic orders) and Parrot varieties in order of ascending size and robustness. Common Crossbills are Larch specialists, their smaller and thinner bills enabling them to tease out the seeds from the smaller and denser Larch cones, the larger species favour bigger Pine tree cones. I say that Crossbills are fairly easy to observe excepting the fact that they tend to feed on cones high up the trees so a very long ladder would come in handy! Much craning of the neck is required to watch the birds and that is very tiring after a while as well as the cause of much aching in the back! Luckily I am used to aches and pains in the back area, although I do most of my staring down at the floor rather than upwards. I had also luckily taken my monopod with me for this excursion, obviously I knew about Crossbills and their habits, and that helped greatly in taking the weight of the camera as well as helping hold it steady. There were now at least four Crossbills feeding in the larch but only one male and that was proving hard to pin down in the middle of the tree.

male Crossbill

For some strange reason female Crossbills are more showy than males. In Crossbill species males are a bright brick red colour and females are a duller yellowy green. In my experience, the females are good at choosing exposed perches at the very end of branches whereas males tend to pick more concealed cones. Hence the females seem to be a lot easier to photograph than males but it's the males that are most photogenic and thus sought after! The weather had indeed turned out nice as promised too so we had good conditions and nice blue backdrops in which to work with. After fifteen minutes or so of watching them, the Crossbills suddenly exploded from the tree when spooked by one of the Sparrowhawks. We had counted four in the tree and yet at least ten flew out! It was the same when we watched a flock of (Scottish) Crossbills in Speyside in June this year. Then we had counted around eight birds but at least twenty flew out from the Scots Pine on that occasion. It is amazing how many birds can feed undetected in a reasonably open and sparse tree top.

We gave it another ten minutes or so but when the Crossbills didn't return we left for lunch at a nearby pub bidding Steve good luck in his continued vigil. Our original plan for the day had been to pop into Farmoor on the way back home but nothing of note had been reported from there today (lazy birders are we) so we discussed other options. The Short-eared Owls at Hawling were suggested but it was still only early afternoon and they wouldn't show until nearly dark so we put that plan on hold until another day. So we thought "why don't we have another go at the Crossbills?". Why not indeed! Thinking that the light would be even better in the afternoon, I imagined that should the birds be present then I would be able to get stonking photos for posterity. It took us less than ten minutes to relocate some of the Crossbills, this time I spotted them feeding in a larch just a few yards away from the original tree. Much to my disappointment though the chosen tree was deep in the shadow of adjacent larger trees and I spent the next hour or so trying, mainly in vain, to get an angle that would enable illuminated views and photos. Again there were around four, or it may have been five, birds on view and two were males one of which was at least showing clearly this time. Most of my efforts were concentrated on this male bird but it never emerged into full sunlight. I tried photographing from the other side of the tree but from there you couldn't see the birds. Such are the trials and tribulations of the bird togger! 

male Crossbill

(Quick joke: Q. Which side of a tree is the front?) 

Of course the females were more obliging and just loved sunbathing at the end of the branches!

female Crossbills

Having had our fill, and leaving a couple of appreciative birders that we'd shared the Crossbills with, we left them all to it and called it a day.

On Sunday morning we headed into the affluent South East area of Oxfordshire near Nettlebed in a search for Firecrests, one of our most diminutive of resident birds. We are lucky enough to know of a very small local breeding colony of these birds and had great views of some earlier in the year but, since we'd drawn a blank with them in Cornwall during our holiday a few weeks ago, thought we'd give it a twirl at seeing them again. If Crossbills are tricky to observe then Firecrests are very difficult to see, particularly in the woodland we now walked into where very tall trees abound. At least Crossbills remain fairly static within the tree tops, Firecrests, along with their close relatives the Goldcrest, are very active little birds and are continually on the move. Indebted to Jim again, we knew exactly where to look but that didn't make it any easier! For an hour we scrutinised every Holly and Laurel bush looking for any movement that might denote a crest of some description without any joy. The only bird of note that we did see was a Jay that posed nicely on a fence at the edge of the wood.

Jay

Eventually we came across an active flock of birds, Great, Blue, Coal and Long-tailed Tits as well as a splendid Marsh Tit were all part of the flock which also contained some Chaffinches. We could hear some crests calling and located them high up in the canopy where they flitted quickly from branch to branch. One of them proved to be a Firecrest but there was no chance of capturing it via the camera. No chance of snapping the fine male Brambling that flew into the same tree either since that departed too quickly. At least a dozen Goldcrests were seen both in the tree tops and in some larger Holly trees but none came within reach of my lens. It's not often that I fail to capture at least some record shots of the birds that I see but on this occasion I did exactly that! We'll return to the local breeding site in the spring and try our luck again there. 

Firecrest, undisclosed location, Oxon, 21st April 2018

On the way home we dropped into Swyncombe Church where we'd seen Hawfinches at the turn of last year. Hawfinches invaded the country in huge numbers last autumn and winter but as yet there was no sign of a repeat this year. Firecrests have also been seen in the churchyard Yew trees but there was no sign of anything save for a couple of Collared Doves and the ubiquitous Red Kites. We took a stroll along the Ridgeway path, seeing very little except for Wood Pigeons and Pheasants until I noticed a medium sized bird flying rapidly across an open area of grassland. I got my binoculars on to it and was delighted to find myself looking at a fine Peregrine Falcon chasing some of the Wood Pigeons which were scattering in all directions. Aiming the camera at the falcon I clicked just in time to be thwarted by a bloody great tree which suddenly moved right in the way! Double bugger! The chance was gone, the Peregrine flew into the wooded hillside and was lost to view and despite waiting for a while didn't come out again. One of those days, good birds but not a single photo to record them!

(A. The opposite side to which you go for a pee! Get it? Because you always pee behind a tree. I'll get my coat......)