Crossbills

Our walk yesterday took us up through Golspie Tower and steadily on upwards along tracks through the forestry until we were almost at the boundary fence on a morning....

....which was as grey and cold as a winter's day, with skeins of geese calling as they passed high overhead on their way north.

Our objective was a small stone circle, marked on a map in one of the public car parks used by mountain bikers enjoying the many trails through the forestry. However....

....it is neither on the OS map nor recorded on the Highland Historic Environment Record website (here), which rather makes me think that the three main stones were raised by the people who did such a fine job creating the mountain bike trails rather than our Bronze Age ancestors.

A little disappointed, we were heading back into the forestry when a small group of birds calling high in the conifers drew our attention. They were crossbills, the crossed bill....

....being clearly visible in this picture.

Photographing them was a nightmare as they were high in the trees, at the limit of the camera's range, and silhouetted against the brightness of the clouds, so the startling plumage of this male is barely visible. Whether these were the rare Scottish crossbill or the more common 'ordinary' crossbill was impossible to tell and, to confuse things further, what can be seen of the colouration is more typical of the parrot crossbill, though the beak structure suggests it was one of the other two crossbills. Whatever they were, we were thrilled to see them. Now we know where to find them, we will be back to see them again on a bright, sunny day.