The pine bunting was near York in a village called Dunnington and initially I was going to go up on Saturday morning. Then I looked at the map and thought about a 4am start. I then booked a nice pub for Friday night in the village and went up on Friday afternoon.
I had plans for stopping on the way up, but in the end the M1 was awful, the weather was disgusting and so only one stop was available - a red-necked grebe at Draycote Water. One in the midst of about 50 great crested grebes took a bit of finding but in the end it gave itself up. After that it was just a slog up the M1 to Dunnington. The Windmill pub was nice - clean new rooms in an annex by the pub plus a giant portion of haddock and chips with a couple of pints suitably refreshed me. The only down side was that breakfast wasn't served till 7 at the earliest and that meant valuable birding time wasted! So, at 7am I was in a field, all alone, but in position for the bird.
The pine bunting is a cousin to our yellowhammer, and is pretty rare in this country, normally being found in Scandinavia over to Siberia. This one had been hanging around for a couple of weeks but was described as "elusive". Also, Martin got it two weeks ago, so it was a good if challenging target.
My only company for the first 15 minute or so were a courting pair of pigeons.
There were two areas where the bird was normal seen - the field above, lurking about in the hedge, or a paddock about 15 minutes walk or 30 seconds bird flight away. By about 8 it was clear the assorted twitchers were split - half of us in the field, half in the paddock. I chose the field as it was having seed put down and was attracting a good supporting cast of birds - yellowhammers, bullfinches, tree sparrows, reed buntings and assorted tits, robins and thrushes.
By 9.30 or so there was probably 25 of us at the site, scanning every bird in the hedge, but no sign. Then someones phone went - the bird was showing in the paddock. Queue a mass exodus of camera and telescope wielding birders across a very muddy field. We were literally running at one point, not very sensible with the soft-going underfoot and thousands of pounds of optical equipment on our shoulders! We got there two minutes after the bunting flew off. The crowd was now 50 strong but no bird in sight. This was not helped we thought by a tree surgeon in a garden backing onto the paddock who was chainsawing and mulching a large tree!! Then the phones all went off again. Bunting seen back in the field in the hedge. Another mass cavalry charge back to where we started. "It showed briefly but was flushed by a dog walker". We all staked out the hedge, started to discuss past exploits, split up to check hedgerows but by 11 no bird. That was 4 hours in. At least it wasn't raining. Then, it happened again - phone went off, bird back in the paddock. What to do? Half of the group went back but I stayed with a small group who had all bonded and thought the best tactic was to wait. There was almost a fight though as one bloke who left walked straight past the hedge where the birds were feeding, flushing them all and being shouted out by our group. He very aggressively turned back and gave us a mouthful before heading off. We did talk about waiting till he was virtually out if sight before calling him back and saying the bird had been seen. He looked a bit big and cross though so we decided against it.
By 12, a few new birders had arrived, sone had left but still no bird. Then suddenly the bloke I had been working the hedge with shouted out "there, on the seeds". Before I could get onto it though it was "flying, over us now, second bird" as two birds dark shapes shot over and landed 100 yards in a hedge. Queue small cavalry charge and finally we had it.
With it now being almost one and over 200 miles to go I only had time for one stop - Carsington Water in Derbyshire. The target here was a willow tit - the rare cousin of the pretty scarce marsh tit. They used to be hard to find, now there are a few hot spots left, otherwise they have gone from many of their old haunts. I haven't seen one for probably 5 years.
About 3 I got to the reservoir and headed for the wildlife centre, looking for some bird feeders where they apparently hang out. This was the total opposite of the bunting though.
On the way back to the carpark I also picked up a surprise year-tick in the form of a ruff on the lagoon. Not rare but a nice bird.
and there were some feral (?) barnacle geese around as well, although I had already got them in Kent!!
So, 6am saw me on the road again, this time down to Somerset and Dorset. No lifers on offer but I was after some more year ticks to get ahead of Martin. First stop was at a village called Box, where Martin had seen a dipper last week. This is apparently a good site for them, and it looked good with a nice river, but despite searching for 20 minutes up and down stream they weren't playing ball. I moved on to Ham Wall about an hours drive away. I've been here before - Hudsonian godwit and little bittern being the stars. The weather today though was iffy, with strong winds and showers so the only things I managed to find were great white egrets, which breed now on site and one lone bittern. Still, two more ticks. Adding to the mileage I then moved down to the south coast at Abbotsbury. Two Richards pipits have been overwintering behind the cafe at the Swannery. They are regular visitors to our shores, but only in small numbers and are pretty elusive. I've only seen one before so well worth having.They are larger than pipits and quite distinctive and leggy but in long grass that can be hard to see. In between the rain showers I trotted out into the fields and started quartering the long grass. On my own, the only chance was to flush the bird. First field - nothing. Second field though proved more productive. Only just into it and a pipit flew up. No call and in flight, who knows. Luck was on my side though - it landed on a stone wall and perched for a few seconds allowing me a good enough view to nail it. Then to confirm it, the bird flew over my head calling. Really good tick and again without hours waiting. Last stop before heading home was at Radipole to get a tick of Meditteranean gull in the car park. A short stop with the mother-in-law for tea and cake and the long journey home.
What a weekend though. One lifer, 6 other year ticks, not a bad haul for March. I am only one behind my best ever March, on 169 birds birds now, which will be gettable with Spring migrants starting to arrive. More importantly, I'm 6 ahead of Martin!
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