Real hunger for more irruptions

IT'S FEEDING TIME FOR RAPACIOUS CROSSBILLS

- Stuart Winter

THOSE lazy, hazy days of school summer breaks are upon us, yet iconic sounds of winter are clinking overhead.

Clusters of crossbills are announcing their arrival across the country with metallic signature calls - a sign that something is rotten in the forests of Denmark and the wilds of Scandinavia.

Crossbills are voracious feeders with corkscrew-like bills evolved to wheedle out seeds from pinecone scales to sate one of nature's greatest appetites.