Crossbills of south-east Scotland (12 Viewers)

[Acanthis]

Good weather for recording....at last!

Finally some good weather and with a car available and some time off managed to get some crossbill recording done:
4th Feb. Cloich, Old Cambus, Press castle, and Penmanshiel.
6th Feb. Monynut.
All woods in the Scottish Borders.

The bulk of birds were recorded in Cloich (31+) and Monynut (58+), all Common Crossbills with a different bias of call-types between the two woods.
Of the birds Ided from sonogram, Cloichs were mostly Lindsays unnamed type + a few startlingly greenfinch-like Fc2 calls.
On the other hand Monynut had loads of loud, 'choopy' Parakeets with a few Glips and the forementioned unnamed type. Also there were masses of siskins & redpolls, with a few bramblings & chaffinches feeding with the crossers...Magic! :t:

What little I've seen of Cloich suggests it may be overwhelmingly Sitka Spruce. Monynut is still mostly Sitka but there are at least two other species of spruce present, with loads of Hybrid larch, Scots & Lodgepole Pines, Douglas Fir, and two species of Silver Fir.
I wonder if this is why two similar plantations only around 30 miles apart currently have a different range of C. Crossbill call-types present, though all birds noted feeding were on sitka.

 

[Acanthis]

Monynut forest yesterday afternoon in 3 hours I recorded 48 Common Crossbills mostly in Sitka Spruce.
Most birds were Parakeets and the above unnamed type.
No Glips were recorded suggesting they may have moved on since my last visit.
Several Fc2s were present though including one pair (the male was a 'golden cock') feeding on a larch which allowed a close approach before flying off. I got a reasonable recording of their quiet, greenfinchy calls which seems to be a characteristic of this type - completely unlike the loud, strident choops of the Parakeets.
Also recorded was an individual with flight-calls similar to birds recorded in Deeside earlier this month by Andrew Whitehouse and Capercaillie71, tentatively ided as 'British'.

 

[Capercaillie71]

Also recorded was an individual with flight-calls similar to birds recorded in Deeside earlier this month by Andrew Whitehouse and Capercaillie71, tentatively id as 'British'.

Your calls certainly seem shorter in duration than a typical parakeet Fc1, so it could be a British Fc1. However, it's all guesswork from me I'm afraid!

 

[Acanthis]

Your calls certainly seem shorter in duration than a typical parakeet Fc1, so it could be a British Fc1. However, it's all guesswork from me I'm afraid!

Ahh! I hadn't considered Fc1 Parakeet. I'm so used to seeing the trailing 'Death's scythe' shape of that type's usual Fc sonogram. I'll need to have another listen to both. An Ec would've been useful.

 

[Acanthis]

Your calls certainly seem shorter in duration than a typical parakeet Fc1, so it could be a British Fc1. However, it's all guesswork from me I'm afraid!

As far as I can figure Parakeet (or Budgie-keet as Linz calls them) differ from other Fc1 s by having all high-energy components with the final downward stroke being particularly intense, giving the Fc sonogram the characteristic 'Grim reaper scythe' shape.

See: http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=grim+reaper&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

This bird begins with rapid low-energy up-and-downs giving the start of the call a 'cracked' sound characteristic of SA's British followed by the downward tail which I admit is longer than the published British Crossbill, but in lug comparison sounds very similar. So I'm calling the bird a 'British' Common Crossbill.

 

[Acanthis]

A recent find is this odd flight call in Monynut forest. It consists of two descending high-energy components possibly connected in the middle - it's really not clear from the sonogram.
I've no idea what kind of crossbill this is.

 

[Capercaillie71]

A recent find is this odd flight call in Monynut forest. It consists of two descending high-energy components possibly connected in the middle - it's really not clear from the sonogram.
I've no idea what kind of crossbill this is.

Looks (and sounds) a bit like a Phantom crossbill flight call!

 

[Acanthis]

Chyup Crossbills!

Here's another odd flight-call.

This was recorded yesterday in Monynut and involves a group of 5 birds circling before disappearing into the trees. (The clip has been edited to remove voice-notes)
The sonogram consists of a low-energy up, followed by a high-energy down, and finishes with a mid-energy up. Above the ' V ' there's a smaller detached v. The sound is like a liquid 'chyup' to my ears. Well you can see and hear all that from the attachments.

I can't relate these birds to any of the Sound Approach or Summers sonograms.

 

[Acanthis]

Haven't posted here for a while. Actually haven't been crossbilling for a while. Increased workload and weird shift patterns combined with my wife needing the car for work has resulted in me being stuck around the house in most of my spare time. Also any trips to the woods have drawn a blank.
Recently though I did manage a mad trip down to England to successfully tick and record a vagrant Two-barred Crossbill. :king:
Linz would've been proud! When the bird turned up I reached for the microphone first before I even thought of using bins or scope. :t:
I've attached two sound files of flight and excitement calls. Their not great - the crossbill gave better calls later once I'd put away the mike...of course! :-C
Have a listen to these if you're heading for conifer woods around Britain. I'm sure there will be others out there waiting to be found.

 

[Acanthis]

While I haven't had a sniff of a crossbill in months it seems there are still a few around. A mate of mine got this photo the other day, one of a group of five in Braefoot over the Forth in Fife - Jammy Git! :C

Interesting thing is it appears to be feeding on a closed Black Pine (Pinus nigra) cone. Despite this I reckon it's most likely a Common Crossbill.