March 15th 2009.
A bit of a mystery this one. White Winged or Common Crossbill? I suspected a variant of the latter but I wasn't really sure.
There was a bit of a debate on birdforum about this, the consensus seemed to be that it was a Common Crossbill. Others disagreed, including Mark Brazil and Sean Minns.
I saw a similar bird in 2008 (no photo alas) and they are known to pass through the area and have been ringed. This one has a ring...............shame we can't read it...........
Any opinions on the ID of this one would be gratefully received................
