Parrots on the Common

Me and Mark made a trip south to Budby Common this morning to see a small flock of Parrot Crossbills, part of the mini invasion into the country over the last few weeks, this flock has been in the area two to three weeks now  and upon arrival we made our way to the quoted  grid reference and joined a sizeable crowd of birders already waiting there, still very popular even though they've been around a while, we got the gen on the birds habits etc and then luck was with us for a change, as within five mins the flock flew in and landed on the tree directly in front of us, at least 12 birds with a couple of Common Crossbills in with them, they posed well but were then flushed by a Kestrel a few mins later. We hung around for an hour or more hoping they might return to their “favourite trees” but eventually received news they had been found a kilometre further along the track feeding in a large conifer, we moved up there and found the birds feeding right at the top so photographic opportunities weren’t good but we got excellent scope views. Not much else on the Common, no sign of the recent Great Grey Shrike today so mid afternoon we took a steady drive back through Clumber Park, which didn’t yield much, then on to Hatfield Moors, we drove around the Wroot area looking for winter Swans first but only found Mutes, a Green Sandpiper in one of the ditches was a nice surprise though and there was a lot of Fieldfares in the fields (where else) plus one or two Buzzards sat there but as always they fly off as soon as you stop the car, we ended up at Boston Park but there wasn’t a right lot on there. 

stonking bill

a couple of Common Crossbills with them and as well
as the less heavy bill they seemed slighter overall