Last Wednesday, a friend wanted to visit West Stowe Country park to photograph the Crossbills that have been highly photogenic for most of the winter. I had visited there a couple of times before so I thought that I knew the ropes.

Firstly we went to Lakenheath RSPB to see if any decent shots could be taken at the feeding station - quick answer - no. Plenty of interesting birds visiting - Siskin, Lesser Redpoll. Mealy Redpoll as well as the usual suspects but there were no suitable perches to get decent shots so nothing worth keeping.

On the way back to the car park, my friend looked up and noticed a large bird flying on a thermal - a Grey Heron?. No, a Crane. Now I did get excited. My only shot of a Crane was at Welney WWT, about 300 metres away so I took a few shots - longish distance but better by far than anything else I have. A result for me if not a particularly good photo.

Now to West Stowe. Driving round the car park, there were a couple of photographers waiting on the far side of the car park instead of the usual place where there were still a couple of decent puddles for them to drink in. Speaking to them it appears that the Crossbills had been coming in to a pool no more than a couple of feet across and in the middle of that part of the car park - difficult to believe I know.

However, after waiting all afternoon with only the odd glimpse of Crossbills on the top of far trees, we noticed there were 4 perched in the trees behind where those photographers were waiting. We quickly moved over and in no time they were coming in to drink in that small pool about 12 to 15 feet away. I already had decent shots so did not keep many but the odd one was a keeper.

Just shows that it pays to speak to the locals to really find out what is going on!!!

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