Scottish Crossbills R Eeezeee !

"Are you looking at me Jimmy ?"

Rightee o all ranting regarding Burd Forum now almost officially over and blog back to normal. However, was informed that KCFoggin is in fact a woman. So ? Still a twat. Apparently, Andy Bright is a woman too. Or a Pink Fairy, I forget. And Sandy, it wisnae just ower a jaicket - the guy was a turd and being insulting to the 99% of normal people who are happy with their gear ! Just like the gimp who thought that because you me and Uncle Tom Cobbly are happy with our 'leaky' Swarovski's or Leica's where the knob has gone stiff then we must be mentally deranged or 'dudes'. I think we all know who the mentally deranged ones are. Will keep checking out BF sporadically for crossbill stuff in Lurkerland but will not be contributing - I am no doubt banned( again) anyway ! I am especially interested in the post today of Common Crossbills feeding on Western Hemlock. in Ingerland. I am not surprised by this, more at a later date. Anyway, I digress.....

A short trip out today to a site near a village called Finzean. It's pronounced Fing' in BTW kinda like the whole John Menzies thing. On the way there a Jay was a welcome sight - quite a few around most of Deeside this year. I like Jay's, the best crows there are. Next to Choughs that is.

Very quiet in the woods save some sma' shite ( coati's, crests and creepers) moving through in feeding flocks. Did some scanning with the parabola and picked up something faint - finch type chatter but not crossbill, that I know, and not redpoll, siskin. FTW ? Oh well. Quite a lot of old foraging evidence by Scottish Crossbills on the floor so kept optimistic.

About ten minutes later I was on to something. Not a breath of wind today so a falling cone 100m away was easily heard and a dead giveaway along with chipping calls birds given when feeding. On goes recorder up goes Telinga. Recognized through the 'phones Scottish Fc's, or chip calls, and then two 'toop' ( excitement calls). Then they scarppered. Didn't even see them, such is often the case with Crossbills in plantations but there were 4 ( from the calls on the sonogram).

That was it. Another hour of gubbing about produced nothing and by 2.00pm it was technically dusk - light until 3.30pm but everything was away to roost. Not desparately exciting but a good result all the same - evidence of (a few) Scotbills in the plantations and feeding on Scot's Pine (which they were). Will they breed here in the Spring ?

More action this week given the high pressure over next few days at least. Key site tommorrow so hopefully more to report. Bonus point to anyone who can tell me what calls the bird in the pic above gave, or what the species is: hint it's not a Common Crossbill.

And a seasonal message folks - "Remember, A Paramo Jacket Is Not Just For Xmas, It's For Life " !

Letter To KCFoggin Bird Forum Moderator

Some readers may also follow my exploits on Bird Forum. Well, not any longer I am afraid. I have just had that oh so predicatble "you're being a naughty boy and if you don't buck up we are going to remove you from our hallowed, beloved forum" from Bird Forum 'Admin' ! Not Andy Bright this time which makes a change. Well go fornicate yourselves Bird Forum Admin. I'll say that again cos I can on here, it's MY show after all. Why don't you all go f**k yourselves Bird Forum Admin.

For anyone that hasn't got a clue what I am talking about you will need to read the thread HERE. However, its Bird Forum, it's not cool and using it will totally mess you up. Just say "no". I would probably advise that you just watch the shopping channel or organize your CD collection instead.

Basically, I had two posts removed where I defended myself against this complete sphincter called "Joespy" who seems to have taken totally disproportionate offence to my balanced view of problems he has had with his Paramo jacket. Because he has a faulty jacket he thinks anyone who is happy with theirs must be an idiot. I should add I don't own a Paramo jacket but I hate these self righteous pricks - remember all the "my Leica's have a stiff focus knob" and "my EL's have a hole in them so they are not waterproof ( though I haven't actually tested that )" threads on the binocular Forums two years ago by Godawfulun ? These people should not be on Bird Forum they are clearly care in the community. I think they should change the name to BB Forum - "Bunny Boiler Forum".

I then get this gem of a PM from Uber Mod KCFoggin ( should that be Fogey ? ). Zeig Heil, Zeig Heil !! :


[KCFoggin]Sorry, but you need to settle yourself down a bit or admin is going to do it for you via removing you from membership. Surely you can get your point across in a less antagonistic way. Either conduct yourself in a manner suitable for forum activities or you are going to be removed. KCStaff[QUOTE]

Weeeell, maybe he just caught me at a bad time - earlier this evening I had been very disappointed to see Tom win the "Strictly Come Dancing Final". It is clear that Lisa should have won or at least made the last two as she had a perfect score from the judges. It shattered me. At least he opened with "sorry" before the "Vee vill take you out a szshoot zu iv you do not comply"

Anyway, I replied to KCDontLogginAgain with this :


"Dear KC,

You have removed two of my posts in reply to a very derogatory post by a BF member clearly insinuating that I am a w4anker yet his offensive post remains there in all it's un-modded glory. Clearly you must agree with him ? So, someone can basically call me a w4anker in pseudo language, but for me to say " go fornicate yourself " (verbatim) in reply is offensive ? Get real. Or at least be consistent. Clearly too difficult a task for BF 'Admin'.

All of my posts on this particular thread have been objective and I have only retorted 'in kind' when I have been provoked by this particular individual. My opinions have been balanced and well argued throughout, though he has ignored this and so do you now.

I am finished with Bird Forum so don't bother going to the trouble of removing me or don't bother replying to this as I will not get your response - it will be blocked as SPAM.
Clearly you intend Bird Forum to be a place for people like Joespy: I notice most of the decent, knowledgeable and serious birders from a few years ago have all left Bird Forum, or more likey have been removed by 'Admin'. Mmmm, wonder why.......

Out of interest did you also send Joespy a message like the one below you sent me ? No, thought not. Your loss. You can stick your Forum. There will be a detailed account of this, and your particular actions and comments going on my blog in an effort to discourage decent people from endorsing this sham of a site and the apparently biased actions of it's moderators. I know this as I am not the only one.

I can say what I like on my blog tough guy...."do it for you" indeed !

Goodbye. "

However, it gets more sinister. If you read the quote by BitternTwisted in post #34 by Markulous the orginal post from where the quote is taken has mysteriously disappeared ! Now, BitternTwisted I think might just have been sticking up for me by correcting Joespy's use of language and making him look a bit stupid. So, it's not just my posts being deleted, other people's innocent ones are too. However, Joesspy's snidy and derogatory post has been left. Clearly he is a friend of KKKFoggin. People, this is what you are accepting by contributing to Turd Forum.

I recall recently a Moderator being really nasty with a BF member on a photography thread. He was clearly using his position of authority to bully this poster. If anyone else had taken a similar tone they would have been 'terminated'. What an absolute prick.

So, do you want the good news or the good news ? Well, the good news is that I won't be contributing anymore to Turd Forum. The other good news ? Well, I thought that would be obvious - I've got to have somewhere to rant so that will continue to be on here. Loxia Fantastica will continue to inform the world of all things crossbills......plus other assorted shite.

Bird Forum, well they can just go forth and fornicate. Oh, but KfCFriedChickenAgain if you are reading this, and I do hope you are, you and BF do now not herewith have permission to hold and display my images of crossbills. You can start by taking off the one of the Scottish in Opus. I did not give permission to use that picture there. As I recall, a moderator put it there. Says it all really. You do not now have my permission to display these images that are my copyright. They were submitted in good faith. You have eroded that faith and any permissions are herewith formally retracted. They are my copyright and I resign my membership of your crappy birding community. And don't get that fat fairy Andy Bright to write and tell me that because they have been put on bird Forum that you are not in the wrong. Remove them now or "we'll do it for you". My agent will be in touch. Not nice is it you tosser.

VOTE WITH YOUR FEET -DO NOT SUPPORT BIRDFORUM !

"Should I Stay Or Should I Go Now ? "

I hate to follow the trend of quitting blogging and following messrs. Allwood and McKinney (and possibly Menzie ?) in finally putting fingertip to keypad but I really am wondering who is reading this high quality crossbill copy that I write and wondering if it is worth continuing. Averaging around 4-5 hits per day it hardly seems anyone gives a monkey about crossbills in stark contrast to the two aforementioned blogs that were far more popular and who still decided to quit. Go work that out !

So, I am going to take a short sabbatical to review things ( actually, to write up some more stuff and to finally finish y CD of Crossbill recordings which should be available next year). My gosh, I have turned into a 'desk ornithologist' - shoot me. No, don't worry the fieldwork will continue, especially ringing crossbills ( on my own !!). I will also be starting a new blog linked through my professional website which will be updated in the New Year.

Keep tuned in all 5 of you as there may be sporadic updates.

All the best, your friendly neighbourhood Loxiafan.

10,000 Light Years........

On the "One Show" BBC1 tonight Tuesday 2nd December there was a short piece on.....wait for it......Britain's only endemic the Scottish Crossbill or, as it is known in some parts, Loxia doiexistorno. Reporter Mike Dilger was with Ron Summers in Abernethy hot on the trails of the Scottish Crossbill. Dilger stated that as a result of the 2008 RSPB Survey "10,000 Scottish Crossbills were discovered, 10 times more than were previously thought to have exist". Well FMSWABP (it's a McKinney-ism so go work it out -RIP Tommo btw), but this is a family blog ! 10, 000 Scottish Crossbills ! I'll say it again...10,000 Scottish Crossbills ! Whoah..what methodolgy produced a figure like that and what is the bias or error involved ?

I missed the actual show due to work committments but my missus told me about it. She even made notes ( I can now call her my secretary). I saw the 10,000 bit she wrote down and peed myself. Luckily I was wearing my incontinence pants at the time. I managed to watch the show on the BBC site on her computer (mine doesn't like the BBC) and it is on at about 20 odd minutes. Strangely, it now appears to have disappeared or been removed from the BBC "One Show" site. RSPB PR department intervention conspiracy theory anyone ? Surely Not.

Highlights for me were that after twenty minutes of lure playing none of these 10,000 Scottish Crossbills were apparently tempted in. It's true what they say in film making.....never work with small children or animals. Now add to that men holding Telingas. A pair finally were spotted ( after stopping the lure). These looked like common types to me on bill morphology - they didn't call ! Also, I have never thought of Scottish excitement calls as sounding 'flutey', but maybe that is just me. Reeks of typical BBC journo agenda editing to me. Never trust journalists as they can never be relied on to get the facts right. Oh, well I'm off to count the Scotties in Deeside. By my reckoning there should be at least 1/5 to 1/3 of the Scottish population present. If I count 300 I reckon I'll be doing very well............

A Scottish Crossbill. There are 9,999 others.....apparently.

New Toyz ( and it's not even Christmas !)

Took the plunge and got a Nikon D300 Camera and a Nikon 300mm AFS ED f4 prime lens for my hide photography.

It's early days and just getting used to the camera but seems a big improvement on the D70s I have been using over the last 3 years.

All pics were taken at Allenvale Cemetery last week, unfortunately I missed the Waxies with the new rig - too busy catching (or trying to catch) them. All images shot in the open from tripod as fine jpegs and adjusted only for levels and slight unsharp mask to add a bit of 'punch'. Best viewed full size by clicking on them. Not bad for my first attempts with the new combo. I also forgot just how relaxing bird photography is - it's like fishing ! Guess I have been sound recording for too long.

My old Tamron 'BigRon' 200-500 is pretty good but the 300mm is making me try to get closer and giving me better speeds and improved sharpness. I am sure I can get even better results if I stick at it. Combined with the better quality higher ISO of the D300 it really is quite impressive for a sub £2000 rig. It's still a lotta dosh though.

Next on the agenda is some small finches and garden birds to see how the rig will cope with crossbills later next year ! Gonna have to dust off the hides and get some sites baited up (not for crossbills !). Problem is I have a conflict of interests: I am a ringer and also want to catch them !