Chopwell Wood Crossbills!

07/01/10

Got up early this morning to go for a walk around chopwell woods. I thought I would start on my yearlist of 2010 and was all set and ready to walk with my camera, bins and notepad.


Walked up into Stother's wood and heard a Goldcrest calling and thought a quick check through the flock just incase of a wintering Firecrest. As I was checking through the flock all the birds around started alarming, me expecting a Red Kite to come over but.....a Tawny Owl, perched above me! Fumbling about to get the camera out was too long as I watched it took away into the Pine tree and out of view.

A walk up the fields produced a Sparrowhawk flying into the bottom of Chopwell Wood. Passed my favourite tree so had to take a photo of it for the blog!

Favourite Tree...

Moving on to the next spot gave me plenty photo opportunities with a Nuthatch, a bird with great character and was very curious of me.

Nuthatch...

All the birds were all foraging for food, a few birds looked sick and were just sitting there all fluffed up. Was a sad sight to see but thats nature at the end of the day. Although, the Nuthatch seemed to be doing well finding food in all the rotten wood.

Tasty food hiding in the rotten wood

There was a Dunnock in the same area as the Nuthatch but interestingly it had no tail feathers. Usually I only see this in the summer on the recently fledged young birds.

Dunnock looking for its tail.

Moving on from this spot I pushed on, walking further into Chopwell wood where things started to get a little more exciting. I seen a flock of finches over in the distance towards Victoria Garesfield and wondered whether there could be a rarity between them.

A View up towards Burnopfield

A short break and a walk later brought me to a small hamlet and some more of the commoner gardens birds including Blackbird, Song Thrush, Robin, Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Woodpigeon and Crow. Also had a skein of 20+ Pink-footed Geese over flying North-east.

Coal Tit looking cold.

Near the top of Chopwell wood I was trying to take an artistic photo of the snow gripping the side of the trees when a male Tawny Owl flew right infront of me then landed in the woods and started calling.

My attempt of tree art...

Just as I was about to head home for a large cup of Horlicks I heard a flock of Siskin heading towards me. I scanned the flock and a Large Red Finch popped up in my Binoculars, first thoughts were of course a massive rarity. So off I went to relocate the little blighter. Found a flock of Siskin, scanning through I see the large unmistakable bill of the Common Crossbill. I was chuffed to find this bird and as I moved in closer for some record shots, more and more kept coming in. I estimated at least 20 of them in the tree tops as they were scattered through a few of the Larch trees, calling to each other while feeding, Fantastic!

Top two photos of Male Common Crossbills; Bottom photo is a Female.

A good record for Gateshead and a good start to my yearlist for 2010.

My walk home was quiet and nothing much to report, probably because nothing much else could beat my sightings of the Crossbill.

Year List stands at a mear 34.