Blast From The Past Finds - Two-Barred Crossbill

Blockers. We love those don't we? There are certain species types which remain unattainable in Ireland. For some reason, very most likely due to Ireland's population geospatial/coastal nature, things like rare thrushes, rare raptors and crossbill species just don't get found very often.

The habitat for visiting crossbills is certainly there, but much of it is inland. 

28th September, 2008.

On the night of the 26th/27th of September myself and Robert Vaughan set off for west Cork, intent on a weekend of hunting migs on the headlands. There had been various bits around, including Melodious Warbler, Common Rosefinch etc so we were hopefull.

Things started ominously though,when sometime around 3/4 in the morning a tyre completely exploded somewhere around Urlingford.

Rob held the torch whilst I got the spare on, but it was one of those "emergency spares" they give with cars these days, and it meant we would have to stop somewhere and get the real tyre replaced as I was not comfortable driving all of west Cork and then back to Dublin on this thing.

We made it down intact otherwise and started out on the Old Head of Kinsale. Here we had a couple of Yellow Wagtails which was a good start, but it was somewhat quiet otherwise.

We carried on into Timoleague, checking for waders but nothing much here. 

We wandered in to Clonakilty where we nabbed some breakfast and then found a tyre place to get a replacement. 

With that done we carried on to check the marshes. Again, nothing much here.

It was then on to Stawtown, Red Strand and Galley. All dead for us, though a Yellow-Browed had been here. We were getting a bit worried now. Where were the Yellow-Brows at least?

Rosscarberry had nothing, so we made for Ballymacrown and Baltimore, not producing much, before settling in for delicious pizza at Jolie Briese and a few pints.

The following morning we were up and out early. We checked the usual spots around the bay, but nothing much here. We decided to work from Rolf's, having had success with Yellow-Broweds there in the past. 

Almost straight out of the car I picked up a calling Yellow-Browed Warbler and we mooched across to the garden it was in where it showed well. 

We then decided to split up, each taking a different direction along the lane.

A couple of minutes later, a Crossbill came in, landing in pines ahead of me, giving an unusual call. A thinner, "chit" type note, not sounding as metallic as normal.

I called Rob and let him know the was a Crossbill (and in general there seemed to be more birds up that way). 

He hadn't gone too far and as I heard him approaching the bird began calling actively. It really was different.

The bird then made itself visible, dropping onto the top of a smaller pine. We raised our bins and we're both shocked to see a pair of bright white wing-bars. 

Rob exclaimed "It has wing bars!" And I being slightly closer, declared "Two-Barred Crossbill".

The bird was showing well, not too bothered by us whatsoever, calling frequently and preening occasionally. It looked a bit damp around the head but otherwise in pristine condition. 

The wing-bars were pure white, unbroken and consistently apparent across both sets of coverts, broadening slightly towards the inners.

I mentioned the uppertail coverts to Rob, those being obviously dark. The tertials were neatly white tipped, with a symmetric fringe on both vanes. A slam dunk Two-Barred Crossbill!

I ran back to Rolf's to get the car, scopes and cameras, whilst Rob stayed watching, obtaining even more excellent views. 

Unfortunately, before I could return, the bird flew off east towards Lough Hyne, calling the entire time. Having the "Calls of eastern vagrants CD in the car, I played the Two-Barred Crossbill call for Rob and that was reality setting in finally. No doubt about it. We both lamented there was no shortage of Crossbill habitat up there. 

Never to be seen again. This bird came off the back of a significant influx into the northern isles and should probably have been on the radar for Ireland.

Two-Barred Crossbill - Robert Vaughan 

A few birders showed up, and we left them to it, opting for Mizen Head.

We arrived on Mizen and gave it a decent bash, but there wasn't much doing down the usual sites on Mizen itself. 

Things improved significantly when we moved on to Brow Head. As we slowly drove up the hill on Brow, an absolutely amazing, pure elven silver (indeed I think it may have been the brightest one I have ever seen) Barred Warbler popped up right beside us on the bramble covered wall.

No bins were in any way necessary for this bird and it's ID and Rob called Barred Warbler instantly. It have droolable views for about 15 seconds before it moved to the perpendicular wall at the back of the garden.

We pulled in and gave it a bit of a stake out, getting one or two more blip views in bins, but we knew it wouldn't perform as well as before so we carried on up the hill. 

Working the walls and tracks here, we were further delighted when a juv Hobby flew over us, taking a late House Martin out of the air.

Luckily it perched up relatively close by and allowed me to nab some digiscope shots.

Hobby - they were still a decent rare back then, especially pure juvs which were rare as hens teeth.

And that was our lot. We couldn't complain exactly and made our way back to Dublin, content with our first for Cork mega blocker and supporting cast. 

Almost 20 years later, and there's never been a twitchable Two-Barred Crossbill ( though one or two have been seen). 

When you get a bird of this quality, it tends to bring out the worst in people.

This bird really showed the Irish birding scene for what it is, sparking off a trend of psycho coward stalkers causing trouble through the use of anonymous email and social media accounts, afraid to use their real identities, in what has become typical bullying, cowardly fashion for that "community". Behavior that persists to this day.

Long may this blocker annoy such people. 😂