Little Bunting

It always feels good when you see a bogey bird put to bed and for me the Little Bunting is one such bird. 

Back in 2015 Dave and I went to look for one that had been reported at Old Lodge Nature Reserve. It wasn't one of our most successful days and we ended up coming home without seeing the target bird. Later that evening Dave e-mailed me a picture he had taken of a small flock of Reed Buntings and sitting in the middle of it was the Little Bunting. I had seen the flock but a quick check of my shots for that day confirmed that I didn't have the picture.

There was no choice, it would be a life tick, I had to go back the next day for another go. Then the day after that and the one after that, seven successive days in all, with no luck even though others were reporting seeing it. Ridiculous really but I couldn't give it up, it was an eighty mile round trip and a waste of seven days with no result to show for it.

I did eventually get to see a Little Bunting but even then it was disappointing. I only managed to get a couple of pictures, they were poor and although I can look back at them now and know that it was a Little Bunting, I did at the time have my doubts.

Little Bunting

Today Warnham Nature Reserve delivered the goods, a Little Bunting sitting out in the open, if only for a few seconds. Just long enough to get the picture above before it moved behind cover and stayed there for a frustrating ten minutes or so before it dropped down on to the ground and started foraging.

It was surprisingly difficult to see and to follow whilst moving about in the leaf litter and twigs on the ground.

The picture below has a number of small out of focus twigs in front of the bird but it is worth including as it shows the head crown stripe which along with the straight culmen (upper ridge of the bill) are the key identifying features.

Other birds seen, a Marsh Tit, this one being ringed and a different bird from the one I saw in the same location a couple of weeks ago.

Marsh Tit

and a male Siskin

Siskin

I would have liked more and better pictures of the Little Bunting but I did at least come away a lot happier than I had with the Old Lodge bird. 

Little Bunting

The Little Bunting has proved to be a bit of a problem bird for me this year. I went to see the bird reported at Old Lodge in Ashdown Forest but failed to spot it even though Dave standing next to me went home with a picture of it. Not wishing to be defeated I went back for another try and another and another and..... Seven visits in all, hundreds of pictures of Reed Buntings but nothing that convinced me that I had seen the Little Bunting. This was starting to be a major part of my life that was going missing.

I had a forced break from the bunting when we went up to Scotland for a week but on return it was still there nagging away at me. Perhaps a different approach was needed. There was a Little Bunting being reported as showing well at Forest Farm reserve in Cardiff. It was a long way to go but could I face another seven days at Old Lodge and that was even if the bird was still there.  Wednesday of last week and I would have gone to Cardiff except I had a problem with the brakes on the car. This was really turning out to be a bogey bird.

Friday the car was fixed and I set off for Cardiff at 05.30 and was in the hide by 09.00 and settled in for what was going to be a long day. Late morning and someone in the hide had a sighting (below) but I was not convinced. It might have been but this looked too much like a female Reed Bunting and as this was my first Little Bunting I needed to be really sure.

Is it a Little Bunting?

By 15.30 I was thinking I would call it a day and go and look for the Lesser Scaup on Cosmeston Lake. I planned to be in the area for two days so I could always come back tomorrow. Except, the warden then appeared and told me that they planned to do some work outside the hide on Saturday and that it was unlikely that I would get to see the bird.

I gave it another half hour, another possible appeared and this time I was convinced - just. The shots are not clear but I can at least, this time, identify the diagnostic features I am looking for.

• Sharp bill with straight culmen
• Distinct white eye ring
• Chestnut cheeks - but not as bright as I would have liked
• White spot on back of cheek
• Dark edging around cheek
• Grey/brown shoulder
• Crown with dark lateral stripes and brown median stripe. - difficult one this, the crown was darker than the female RB but not as dark as I would have liked
• Pink Legs

The bird was also smaller than the Reed Buntings I was seeing.

Was I happy? Not really, I wanted a good picture and one that really stood out as being a Little Bunting but it is at least the end of the current search. It's time to move on to other things including what to do with the rest of my two day pass.

My thanks to Peter Suneson, Adam Bowley, and Rich. for help with identification via BirdForum and to Dave who was always confident in the identification and is probably just glad that I will not be going on about it any more.

Did I see anything else at Forest Farm? Well I did get a bit of mission creep when this pair of Bullfinches turned up. I was probably photographing these whilst the Little Bunting was displaying at the other end of the hide.