I was expecting to have a big day out this weekend to help boost my rather pathetic year list-I managed to add Grey wagtail at work to bring it up to a stunning 35. Unfortunately, I spent hours at the hospital on Thursday waiting to have a blood test done and seemed to have picked up a bug-just feeling very tired and a bit sick.
Anyway having told Colin I wasn't feeling great I woke up this morning and decided to go out for a couple of hours. The Broxboure Parrot Crossbills have been seen on and off all week and I still need them for my Herts list. Yesterday was very cold and frosty and today seemed a bit better but heading down Mangrove Road was rather dicy with the car sliding around on every bend, and with the low sun in my eyes it wasn't a pleasant experience.
I got there at 9, Darren and William had already been there for quite some time with not a lot to show for their efforts. Mike Illet and Richard Pople turned up later, as did a few others. It was bitterly cold even with the sun shining down on us and maybe that affected things as I saw relatively few birds in the two hours that I was there. Great potted Woodpecker was the only new bird for the year, heard a few Siskin again, and tits and Robins were vocal.
No Crossbills again. They seem to be very erratic, some times they may only appear briefly, if at all yet some days they will remain on view for an hour or more. What doesn't help is that these ones aren't all that vocal, and I know from past experience you they can be in the tree right by you and you might not know they are there. Not sure if I would want to go down again, but I expect that they will stick around for a couple of months, so I guess I will have to try at least one more time.
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