Oh no!.... not more Crossbills!

Spent today on the Mainland of Shetland, with the hope that there might be some good birds about! but the only ones I managed to find were a couple of flocks of Crossbills, and a very scruffy Redpoll...

The Crossbills were found at Sullom and at Kergord, with the three birds at Sullom proving to be the usual '4E' vocal type that seems to be the norm up here lately... but the Kergord birds were the scarcer '1B's that I've only found 3 times before in Shetland!

The pic and sound clip are of the '4E' birds...

The sound clip also contains Siskin and Curlew calls;

Now we do get quite a few different species and sub-species of Redpoll up here! but this rather scruffy looking individual seems to be in heavy moult, and even has only two fully grown tail feathers. Does anyone care to comment on race?

Crossbills and Orcas!

A trip to Brae for building materials provided a good mornings entertainment!


Now anyone who knows me well, will know of my love of Crossbills. So finding 5 birds feeding in the plantation at Sullom, provided more than enough interest to keep me busy for a hour or so (photos & recordings). Then on the way back home, the ferry journey was made far more enjoyable than normal by the sighting of 4 Orcas. To my eyes they looked to be 1 Bull, 2 Cows and a Calf.

Most of the Crossbill recordings proved to be 'Glip' or '4E' depending what classification you want to use!

With one of what looks like the 'Parakeet' or '1B' variety showing up in the sonogram. (If this is the case, then it's only the third record for Shetland, with the other two being recorded by myself on Unst last year! ) any comments on these recordings are most welcome!

And can anyone guess what this is meant to be?

answers;

a, Shed. or b, Digger.

And now for the 'science' bit

Well maybe the word 'science' is a bit strong?


Put together a complete technophobe and a complicated subject such as Crossbill vocalisations, and it's a miracle that I got any recordings at all, but get recordings I did, and a few of them were good enough to id too...

Crossbills were only looked for in native Scots Pine forests, due to the fact that the cones should still be closed at this time of year, and only the larger billed birds (Parrot & Scottish) should be able to access the seeds. This fact seems to have escaped the attention of the birds themselves, as I recorded 'Common' Crossbills in all the woods checked!




The first sonogram shows what is commonly known as a Fc4 (or 4E's depending on the classification you follow). These birds were quite scarce in Britain until last Summer, when there was a large scale invasion. These vocal types were the most abundant birds I recorded in Shetland last year, and thus before then would have been a good find, but now they seem to be everywhere.


Also got a bit of a dodgy sonogram of what looks like an Fc1 (1A) If you squint carefully you can just about to see it...I recorded only two of these in the 2009 Shetland invasion! (Sorry about the poor quality)



But...These ones are slightly more interesting (to me at least!), They were described to me by Magnus Robb (of 'Sound Approach' fame) as a probable variant of the above Fc4. Typical eh. Just when you think you are getting a handle on things, someone shows you that you really don't know what the hell your talking about.

Well, just looks like I'm going to have go back to Speyside to try getting more recordings...Oh dam! (If I have too).

I hope this just goes to show all those people who have either Scottish or Parrot on there lists, based purely on habitat or time of year they seen the birds. May well be wrong! Without recordings, In my opinion, only large billed Parrots and small billed Commons can be confidently identified in the field. As the overlap in bill size between large Common and small Scottish, and large Scottish and small Parrot make sure things ain't all that easy! I'm surprised there ain't more people out there with recorders...

Any comments on the above sonograms are most welcome.