Parrot Crossbills!!!

 PARROT CROSSBILL

at Holt Country Park

 
The last couple of days have been exhausting to say the least. Father wasn't well, but he's ok now. Took mother shopping straight after work on Friday night and didn't get back to my house until gone 9pm – fell asleep on the sofa and woke up at 12.01am precisely. I could have slept all day today to be honest. I got up at a reasonable time, but then got back into bed, I felt so tired.

I missed the best photo opportunities for the Parrot Crossbills at Holt Country Park this morning, when the light was better, but I made it over there by lunchtime. I had my best views of these awesome birds today and I saw 10+ birds in the end. They were feeding on a tall larch and also on the adjacent pine tree – opposite the path that runs alongside the road (where I saw them last week). It was magical watching them picking off cones like sweets and carrying them effortlessly to the top most branches. I managed to get some better pictures than last week, but still nothing spectacular. Too far for my 300mm lens – too high up and poor light most of the time I stood here. It was raining on and off aswell. Walked round the park to the pond and back to the carpark. Sat and had a coffee by my car and then walked round again. Someone told me they never show much after 2pm – this seems to be the case, as I didn't see them any more.

PARROT CROSSBILLS

at Holt Country Park

I really fancied sitting having a pot of tea and cake in the Cley Visitor Centre, so whizzed over to Cley and just made it by the deadline of 3.30pm! Had a lovely surprise when I got to the V.C. when I bumped into James and Simeon Grundy – it was great to see them and catch up. They were on their way to Norwich to join Connor for his 21st Birthday Celebrations – oh dear, sounds carnage! Look out Norwich and the girls!!! James and Simeon told me they were going to 'do some birding tomorrow' – yeah right!!! The piece of Cranberry & Orange Cake I had was particularly scrummy!

Went to get my sea fix and drove to Coastguards. Scrunched through the shingle and walked down to the sea's edge – saw 2 Common Scoters flying west and a few gulls, nothing else of note. Pinkfeet flew overhead and lots of Brent Geese landed on the Eye Field.

Popped into Holt to look at shoes, to see if I could find something more funky than the pair I already have for next week's Christmas Party, but didn't find anything exciting. Drove home. Seems like a very short day off, but then I didn't exactly get up very early!