Crossbills in my birding day (1 Viewer)

A superb day today at Low Barnes Nature Reserve Co. Durham culminated with my first ever sightings of Crossbills. Four had been posted on the visitors board earlier in the day and we were determined to see them! It was not untill about 4.00pm after about five hours searching we found 1 male 1 female and 2 juveniles feeding in a pine tree. They stayed for a least 15 minutes and I even managed to scope the parents feeding the juveniles, a magical site. All in all a very good day with 26 species seen, 7 first timers for me ( marked *)
Crossbill *
Willow Warbler *
Willow Tit *
Barnacle goose *
Teal *
Goldeneye *
Goosander *
Sparrowhawk
Jackdaw
Jay
Great Tit
Blue Tit
Pied Wagtail
Robin
Black Headed Gull
Greenfinch
Nuthatch
Chaffinch
Coal Tit
Tufted Duck
Grey Heron
Cormorant
Little Grebe
Canada Geese
Mistle Thrush
Grey Wagtail:t:

Thats good stuff Paul, - Crossbill, Nuthatch & Grey Wagtail would also have been firsts for me.
And some interesting 'watching' there as well.

:clap: Congratulations on the lifers especially the Crossbills which would be firsts for me. You deserved them after determined searching!

Just a simple question,

are nuthatches that rare in UK? That most of u don't see them too often. I spot them almost everyday in the park here. I was even lucky to find a nestling place of a couple. They are beautiful birds and i enjoy looking at them every morning. Some weeks ago i saw some nuthatches foraging on the ground! That was new to me. I'd never seen them leave the tree.

At least a good list you had there. I have never seen crossbills either. Goosander and goldeneye were just newbies to me two months ago. That's when i saw those species for the first time.
Good job! o

Hi Erik,

Nuthatches are also quite common in most of England. But in a few localised places they are rare, because there aren't many trees for them. They are also rare in Scotland, only a few pairs in the far south, but they are slowly spreading further north.

Michael

I hope they spread to the Isle of Man as well
I havent seen a Nuthatch at all, I am pretty sure there are hardly any over here.
(Cjw might correct me on this though!)