Real hunger for more irruptions

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

- Stuart Winter

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.