There’s been more Crossbill records than normal this year, but I was still pretty surprised to see a family part of seven birds yesterday morning. The flock alighted in a larch on the northern edge of Nore Hanger (a large copse that adjoins Hascombe Hill to the south), before flying north.
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| Crossbills, Nore Hanger, 1/5/2018. |
Hascombe Hill has historically been a good site for Crossbills. Indeed, a Surrey high count of a couple of hundred in the 80's is listed in Wheatley (don't have the exact data to hand), and whenever I encounter the species on patch it’s almost always in the south of the site.
Crossbills can breed early in the year (even in the winter), making the most of pine cone numbers. Nevertheless, after a poor winter for Common Crossbills (not Parrot!) locally and nationally, this success comes as a welcome and unexpected breeding record.
Of course, there’s no knowing exactly where they bred (and if it was within patch boundaries), but it can’t have been far away…
