Sussex Cirl Bunting

 

Cirl Bunting is not a common bird in Sussex, the last recorded sighting being in 1996. I had seen them a few years ago on a visit to Devon but a local bird, just a few miles from home, was worth a visit.

The bird had adopted a patch just north of Mile Oak Farm and had been resident there for nearly a week. I did have a look on the Friday, but just missed it and then having waited four hours for it to return, gave up and went home. Sunday morning I was on site before 7am and found the bird almost immediately, calling and displaying around its favoured area.

Whilst it was showing well, pictures were difficult, as it always seemed to have branches in front of it. The shot below being the best I got that morning. I would have spent longer chasing that perfect picture but there was a clay pigeon shoot a little further along the bridleway, with the promise of twenty to thirty cars to pass its favoured bush. So, seen the bird, got a record shot and a cooked breakfast back at home seemed the best option.

Cirl Bunting

Here is another picture, this one from a trip to East Prawle Devon a few years ago.

Cirl Bunting

As a population Cirl Buntings are not very mobile, so whilst they are expanding their territory down in Devon, it is unlikely that we will see a breeding pair in Sussex for a few years yet. However, on the plus side it does mean that this male could spend most of the summer on his patch waiting for a female to turn up. Lets hope he gets lucky!

Mallorca - the rest

Raptors were in short supply during the week we were in Mallorca. An Eleonora's Falcon would have been nice but I think we were a couple of weeks too early. Best Raptor of the trip was this Black Vulture photographed above the Cuber reservoir.

Black Vulture

Booted Eagles were a common sight at various places we visited and we also managed to pick up lots of Kestrels and Marsh Harriers.

Booted Eagle

Marsh Harrier

Kestrel

The Boquer valley was a bit of a disappointment. It is a lovely walk and well worth doing but other than one distant Rock Thrush, a few Sardinian Warblers, and a couple of Booted Eagles we did not see much. Fortunately I had taken some reasonable pictures of a Rock Thrush at Beachy Head only a couple of weeks before (see here)

It was worth spending some time at the start of the walk in the area between the car park and Finca Boquer (Boquer Farm). The farm is private property but you are allowed to walk through it and it gives some wonderful views out across the adjacent fields and wooded areas.

Cirl Bunting in the fields below the Finca

Pied Flycatcher at the Finca

Woodchat Shrike in the fields below the finca

We saw three different Woodchat Shrikes but the only ones close enough to photograph insisted on giving me long views of their backs.

Sardinian Warbler at various sites

Serin at the Pine avenue

Yellow Wagtail (Iberiea) Albufereta

Spotted Flycatcher 

The local race of Spotted Flycatcher, balearica, is noticeably paler and less streaked than the ones we see in the UK.

Wheatear - Cuber Reservoir 

Yellow-legged Gull - Puerto Pollenca

The problem with birding in a place like Mallorca is that you want to visit every location and see every bird. It was our first time there and that is what we tried to do. I think that if I were to go back I would be a bit more selective. Identify just a few target birds and spend the time getting some really good pictures.

Lesser Scaup, Cirl Bunting, and Penduline Tits

My last post drew to a close a very unsatisfactory search for a Little Bunting. Eight days and probably around fifty hours and I was still not really sure that I had the right bird. (but now confirmed via BirdForum) I needed some success and a few decent pictures and the next few hours were about to deliver just that. Three great birds, good picture opportunities and all for a couple of hours birding and a "bit" of driving. 

The light was beginning to fade as I left Forest Farm where I had been looking for the Little Bunting. My other target in Cardiff was the Lesser Scaup. It was getting a bit late but I headed round to Cosmeston Lake on the other side of Cardiff just to see if I could locate the bird. Sometimes you just get lucky. I parked up and walked down to the lake and there it was.

I also spotted this unusual duck on the lake. I assume that it is some form of hybrid but I will have to do a bit more research to find out what it is.

Hybrid?

What to do next? There was no point in going back to Forest Farm the next day as they would be working around the hide area. Cosmeston looked interesting but it would be full of people and dog walkers on a sunny Saturday. I felt as though I was on a bit of a roll so I decided to head over the bridge and down into Devon to look for the Cirl Buntings.

The next morning I was in the car park at Broadsands at at 06.15 with the sun just coming up, no one about and a lot of bird activity all around me.

Song Thrushes, Dunnock and various Tits kept me busy for a few minutes

Dunnock

Song Thrush

but then a pair of Cirl Bunting arrived. I got a couple of record shots but the dawn light has too much orange in it for  recording the true colours and I just had to hope that they would hang around for half an hour or so. Fortunately they did and I got the pictures I was looking for.

Cirl Bunting

The female was staying in cover and was harder to photograph and in the time I was there I only saw these two birds but then two is a lot better than none.

Female Cirl Bunting

Where to go next? Darts Farm was just north of Exeter and on the way home, Penduline Tits were putting in occasional visits there, would my luck hold?

Only a quarter to ten in the morning and I was heading for home feeling really happy. There were a lot of places I could have visited on the way back but anything now would be an anticlimax. All I really wanted was a comfortable chair and a cup of tea.

The frustration of an eight day search for one bird wiped out by three great birds in just a couple of hours. Knowledge and field craft play a big part in finding the birds but you need to be lucky as well.

Cirl Bunting

I think the wife had been getting a bit fed up with my always being out birding or butterflying, so she decided that we should have a short break away, with some nice walking and good food. Sometimes you just have to go along with these things so I booked up a couple of nights for us in East Prawle down in south Devon. It looked a very undeveloped piece of coastline with good walking and there was a traditional pub, the Pigs Nose, that had numerous CAMERA awards for good beer and decent pub food. It sounded like the ideal, get away from it all, short break. You can imagine my surprise then, when I found out that it also has a small colony of Cirl Buntings and if the sun ever shone I might also find Small Pearl-bordered Fritillary and Marsh Fritillary butterflies close by. Sometimes you just get lucky!

The problem was that we were not lucky with the weather, overcast, drizzle, low cloud and cool. We did a couple of stretches of the South West Coast Path. I have no complaints about the scenery. You get miles of unspoilt paths with very few people about and with wild flowers growing everywhere. All you needed was a bit of sun to bring out the butterflies. The closest I got was a Speckled Yellow Moth.

Speckled Yellow Moth

There were plenty of birds about but not the ones that I really wanted to see. Still I always have time for a Dunnock one of my favourite birds.

Dunnock

We did about ten miles along the coast on the Thursday. We could probably have done more but I was stopping to check out every tree and cluster of undergrowth in an attempt to find a Cirl Bunting. We had no luck and by the time we got back to the car park my spirits were starting to sink. We were leaving the next morning so it would have to be an early rise and a couple of hours birding before breakfast. We did one last circuit of the car park, I had given up but my wife, an occasional fair weather birder, thought she had heard the Cirl Bunting song in the distance. I was sceptical but we went and had a look anyway and sure enough she was right. We had a male bird sitting out on the top of a bush singing for all he was worth.

Cirl Bunting

Cirl Bunting

Its strange how one moment can transform a day. I was now happy to go home and was looking forward to celebrating with a couple of pints of the local brew in the pub that evening. But birds are like buses, once one comes along they all turn up. We only had a mile to drive to get back to the B&B but halfway there I spotted a buzzard perched on top of a post. It was a very pale colour so worth a look and it should have been a great picture as I don't think that I have ever been able to get so close to a buzzard before. Unfortunately we were at the top of a hill and in low cloud so diffusion through the water droplets has meant that I have lost all the detail in the picture.

Juvenile Buzzard

When I turned around to walk back to the car I found I had eight of the Cirl Buntings sitting up on the power cables. No chance of a close up picture but at least I will know where to look next time.

One of eight Cirl Buntings on the power cables