Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Common (glip, glypp, glop??) Crossbill BWP to the rescue again

a very interesting array of Common Crossbill calls and song types at Wykeham today -- then came across this bird in apparently juvenile plumage but on February 8th and eating seeds from larch cones so clearly not a juvenile of this year  -- quick check with BWP and post-juvenile moult may be partial and some females can retain almost full juvenile plumage through their first year of life an even breed in this plumage



none of the birds came down and after the weekend's rainfall there are pools everywhere in the forest so nothing to concentrate birds

2 comments:

Dicky Ticker said...

Nice pics Graham, were these near the Great Grey Shrike clearing?

Graham Catley said...

Yes just at the west end