Common Crossbill
JIP jip jip! Loud, abrupt, slightly ringing calls from overhead: crossbills! Common Crossbill is a bit of a nomad, appearing here, there and everywhere as larch, spruce and pine cone crops ripen. Birds will wander widely in mid-summer, after breeding earlier in the season, sometimes as early as January.
Cone crops are somewhat irregular, so areas of extensive conifers will often attract birds year after year, while little copses and shelter belts will be attractive in some years, less so in others.
Any rounded, short-tailed, thick-billed finches perched upright on a tall treetop are worth looking at. Males are orange-red, bright on the rump, browner on the wings; females are greener. Juveniles are much more heavily streaked with brown.
Feeding crossbills are more likely to be well hidden and silent, but you might locate one by listening out for the rustle of falling cones from above. The birds use parrot-like actions to prise open cones with their bills.
Every so often, though, they will gather together, sit on a treetop and call, before flying off, bounding over the trees. The calls are various purring, trilling and chipping notes that increase in speed and volume before a clatter of jip jip jip or forceful djeep djeep djeep notes as they go.