Two more lifers at Hemsted Forest.Parrot & Two barred Crossbill.

With Brian working this morning, I drive Jimmy the 70 miles to Hempsted Forest in Kent. It takes about one hour & 20 minutes, there are five or six people already here, one being Dave B, nobody had seen anything up till now, so we have a talk as we scan the trees.
We see plenty of Crossbill but no target birds.
After another thirty minutes we get onto our first Two-barred Crossbill,we have dipped four times looking for this bird at Lyford so this is sweet another  lifer for both of us.
The view with the scope is really a good one, we can pick it out really easy, not just the two bars down the wing but the raspberry colour stands out on this male bird against the common Crossbills.
Now we start the look for the Parrot Crossbill.
There are now forty or more birders all looking with us, we stay with the main group for the next hour or so, then I decide to walk round to the clearing on the west side of the ride, Jimmy soon follows with five other birders, an hour goes by before we see any sign of Crossbill again.
One single bird lands at the top of the trees in front of us, every one is on to it & it is soon identified as a Parrot Crossbill, we are all convinced we have our bird, a fellow gets a photo & it confirms to us that we do have our target bird.
It has a bigger beak & thick neck & a flatter head, so we have waited to get these two birds but at last we have both of them for two lifers for the day.

Jimmy on the way home very happy with two more lifers.

A few of the birders at our first visit here.