Lynford Arboretum - Fri 13 Dec

A sad day today as I travelled to Norwich for the funeral of my aunt. After a moving service at the crematorium I had a few hours before the memorial service in Diss, so I travelled up to Mundford and spent some time at Lynford Arboretum arriving a little before midday.
I set up my scope and scanned the larches near the small visitor centre (which I have never seen open!). I was hoping for a Two-barred Crossbill to put in an appearance as a male had been present for a few months. Soon after being joined by a couple of other birds a small flock of nine Crossbills dropped in to the trees and after a false alarm with a Common Crossbill with wing-bars we were lucky enough to see the real McCoy with good views of the male Two-barred Crossbill. Using the UK400 Club lists this bird was a landmark for me as it was my 400th species of wild bird in the UK!
The small flock soon vanished and over the next hour or so I just saw a couple more Common Crossbills, including this male:

Also around the arboretum a small flock of a dozen or so Siskin put in a brief appearance and there seemed to be Coal Tits everywhere. A good number of Redwings passed through and the other "expected" woodland species were seen.