These pics are from a relatively sucessful ringing session on Sunday with a couple of GRG colleagues - themselves both notable crossbill experts of some quite considerable repute (they may be reading !).
Seven birds caught in total which, to seasoned 'normal' ringers ( is there such a thing ? !), may not seem worthwhile but actually could not be further from the truth.
First bird caught, a cracking adult male with a honker of bill, almost putting it out of Scottish type range:
"Oooosha, look at the bill on that!"
As well as biometrics, speciation was also confirmed by it's call type, a classic Fc3 ( not shown as I know people have been pinching and using my sonograms - go get your own !).
Unusual bird of the day went to this female bird:
Body plumage shot here (note orangey tones):
And a shot of the rump (normally green/bright green !):
So, an orangey/bronze female type which was classified as female due to dark centres to crown feathers. A new one for me anyway, so glad I went. Nothing is straightforward as far as crossbills are concerned ! For me that is the part of their appeal.
Another male with 'classic' Scottish Crossbill mandibles:
Note the pine resin on the mandibles of all the birds who are clearly still feeding on unopened scots pine cones.
All release calls were consistent with Scottish Crossbill (as were bios) though one female bird was mute ( which happens and is annoying). Had to use my ME67 and FR2LE partly due to portability and partly due to the fact my Pro6 handle has been back in Sweden since early August but this backup setup seems to work really well in this context, although some of the harmonics are fainter without the Telinga.
Hopefully many more successful sessions over the winter !
1 comment:
Top stuff which inspires me to dust off the mini disk and mike and go x-billing!
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