Crossbills

This year I worked on a small project with one of my favourite birds - the crossbill. I was blessed to have them nesting just 200m from my house in a small collection of pines, though due to their extremely secretive nature I only even discovered them once the juvenile had fledged! I had seen a a pair earlier in the year but presumed them to be passage birds! Thankfully the juvenile was unable to fly at the time of discovery to so there was sufficient evidence to suggest they had nested close-by.

The juvenile bird.

Once I had discovered the birds, it was a question of photographing them. Being pine-seed feeders they never fed below the 50m canopy of the pine trees and so I set myself a challenge. After doing a lot of research I learnt that due to their somewhat dry diet they require large quantities of water; so I promptly set about flooding small patches of woodland...to no avail! After a little while I discovered why, the birds had already found a watering hole in the most desirable place imaginable - the pavement! A leaking water main had caused a fraction of water to spill on the concrete and this proved irresistible to the crossbills!

Long waits were required (not great during GCSEs!) but thankfully the local Goldcrest gave me some company...

The pavement was hardly the most natural of areas but it was still a rare chance to see these beautiful birds up close!

Female Crossbill

Female Crossbill

Male Crossbill

I was really after some shots off the concrete but as time moved on, so did the crossbills; the juvenile was soon flying well and so the birds really had no reason to stay. This shot of the male is all I managed:

As always thanks for reading!

Waxwings, Awards and a National Mega!

The past week has been an excellent one for a variety of reasons! Last weekend I found some local waxwings which for once were showing low down enough to achieve a smooth green background.

On friday I also attended the RSPCA Young Photography Awards Ceremony. To my amazement I won the 12-15 category with the image below (a result that was far better than I ever expected)

Finally, with news breaking of a Buff Bellied Pipit at Queen Mother Reservoir on Thursday, it was perhaps inevitable that today I was down there photographing the wonderfully confiding bird. Unfortunately at QMR low angles are virtually impossible due to the raised bank but hopefully these photos do the birds justice...

As always thanks for reading!

Also apologies for the randomly placed copyrights on my image (it is a fault I am currently trying to resolve!)