Crossbills are fascinating birds. They have evolved a strange lopsided bill that looks all wrong, but they use it to prize open cones to get at the seeds. You can see this in the photo below.

These were all seen at the top of the estate, near Nelly Moss (South Lake) where there are plenty of coniferous trees. They were flying around from tree to tree in small groups. Once they are in the tree they are quite difficult to spot, but when flying they can be heard chattering to each other with a "jip jip jip" sound. These are all juveniles, they are spotted, like many juvenile finches, and they are starting to get their adult plumage, which is red for a male and yellow/green for the female.