Rustic Bunting: My job takes me up and down the country, as an ecologist there are times when working long distances can be a pain. The traffic, the early start and then throw in the weather, but there are times when you end up working close to a rare bird. This week I have been asked to carry out a bat roost assessment and ecological assessment near Aldershot and it wasn't hard to convince myself to take the short detour to the nearby Thursley Common so I can see the 1st winter rustic bunting and hopefully a little bunting or two that have been overwriting here.
Rustic bunting are normally found in northern Europe and Asia and there are very few records of overwintering birds in the UK. Typically these butnings overwinter in Japan, eastern China, and elsewhere in southeast Asia.
These medium bunting have bright chestnut-brown upperparts that are streaked with black on back. Their throat and belly are white, breast band is cinnamon-brown, and sides and flanks are streaked. Black head has slight crest and thick white eyebrow.
Little Bunting: The other bird that can be found amongst the yellow garsses and haether is this little bunting, who seemed a lot more confident then the rustic and came out to feed on the seeded area more often. there has been two reported in this area over the last few months but I only saw a single individual.
Little bunting are widespread across northern Scandinavia and Siberia and overwinters mostly in southern Asia.
These little birds are considerably smaller than other buntings, hence their names and they resemble female reed bunting. With a dark, streaked back, pale underparts some streaking, and reddish brown cheeks.
Occasionally the little bunting would take a short flight into the gorse or over the heather and call, which was pretty distinctive.
Both birds remained faithful to a large area of gorse and young silver birch where some kind soul had been regularly seeding, attracting a range of buntings including reed bunting.
I would like to add that ‘social distancing’ was maintained throughout my visit here and everyone behaved impeccably during the hour or so I spent here. Beside there were only three people here so plenty of space to spread out.
It's easy to to keep yourself and others safe while twitching and birding, you are outside, socially distanced and where you can't you wear a mask..
But in this case It was just me and two other birders, so plenty of distance to be had.
