Sunday 17 May 2009

Windy, Wet and What is that?

Mike and I dropped the lesser spotted teenager off at Ellington last night and headed straight for Cresswell as the cloud formations were fab for photo's (according to Mike) Plenty of Swallows (i think) and Sandmartins darting about the dunes and to my delight a male and female Reed Bunting perched on a fence post, I have only ever seen 1 before but they have become a favourite. (probably because I can identify them, well the males anyway) Just as Mike started taking photo's the heavens opened and I darted behind a sand dune to dodge the rain, I sat there thinking 'what on earth am I doing here' when a Swift flew right infront of me, what delight. 'We must be mad' I shouted to Mike as the rain pounded down on my hood and I dared a peek around the dune to see a strange bird on the fence, just perched there probably thinking the same as me. My notes on identification was a bit blurry with the rain but it said, chunky, striped, bit of black on chest and lightish brown. We ran for the car as Mikes lense was misting up and I was drenched and also to check my bird guide. I had no idea what this little bird was and looked at every bloody page in the book thinking well thats not it....thats not it ....thats not it bearing in mind I can't tell the difference between Buntings, finches and Tits and there on the very last page it was.... a Corn Bunting, and a tick. Only out for 20 minutes, got soaking wet but well worth it.

3 comments:

  1. Hi

    Is there a chance that the bird was a Meadow Pipit as their breast streaking forms a black patch in the centre of their chest?

    Or what about female Reed Bunting?

    Its just that Corn Buntings are, sadly, almost extinct in Northumberland these days.

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  2. Also bear in mind wet feathers tend to look much darker, BB's summed up, not impossible but very unlikely.

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  3. Ohh what a bloomer.....I guess my ID skills were a bit off once again, probably a female Reed Bunting as there was a few hanging around despite the rain. Never mind at least I ID the Sanderlings right earlier on in the year, THis birding lark is sooooooo complicated. hehe I can only laugh at myself

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