Balranald Buntings

A real birding highlight of a recent trip to North Uist was hearing Lapland Buntings singing for the first time. A group of at least 41 birds were hanging around the Balranald RSPB visitor centre and many of the males were getting into their striking summer plumage. It had been many years since I had last seen this plumage on a similar bird on my local patch in North Wales and I thoroughly enjoyed the close views of one particularly tame male who fed at the side of the path.

After feeding he hopped up onto the fence for a look-a-like pose with a bird that I had photographed on Fair Isle last autumn.

It was not just Lapland Buntings at Balranald. A smart male Reed Bunting was feeding along the strandline along with a wave of White Wagtails. This one shown here was singing at Barn's Ness this week.

Not all buntings area as visually striking - Balranald is also well known for its Corn Buntings, though we only managed to see this lone individual. He was singing as well, and I hope that a female has responded to help boost the precarious population of this disappearing species. As a breeding and resident species it is now apparently extinct in Lothian. I was lucky enough to see a single at Barn's Ness last autumn, which was only one of two records that I know of in the county last year.

Winter buntings

Bird of the day on Sunday was a male Snow Bunting that was bombing around Musselburgh first thing in the morning. As soon as I heard the repeated 'teu' flight call I knew it was one of the winter buntings. As soon as I clapped eyes on its pied wings there was little doubt over which species this was.

On its second flypast the Snow Bunting added its second flight call - a 'trilidididid'. This call is quite different from the dry buzzy version of the call given by the Lapland Bunting. I was disappointed not to be able to nail the identification on the first call alone, especially given the ample opportunities for committing both to memory last autumn. Next time I'll be ready though as both of the calls of the Snow Bunting are more musical and pleasing to the ear.

Nov '11: Looking carefully at the above flight pic, it looks as if this individual is of the nivalis subspecies, given the extent of white in the wing.

I have now photographed both species in flight at Musselburgh this winter. Most shots end up looking like these two - as both species have a bounding flight pattern with the wings held in tightly against the body for most of the time. Snow Bunting on the left here and Lapland Bunting on the right.


 Maybe these shots do not show the species off to their best advantage, so here are a few more...

Here are Snow Buntings photographed at Barn's Ness in September and November 2010. This first photo is of the November bird and this appears to be one of the paler rumped Scandinavian subspecies nivalis, which although regular is apparently less common than the Icelandic insulae. Both subspecies breed in Scotland. Nov'11: The second bird is difficult to classify - probably insulae.

Finally, here is a Lapland Bunting photographed on Fair Isle in October. What a great autumn 2010 was for this species across much of Britain. I wonder whether there might be a surge of spring records this year as they move North(-West?). It is quite a few years since I found a male in breeding plumage on my old patch at Nercwys Mountain in North Wales, now that would be something to repeat.