Cirl Bunting: My mum invited us down to stay in a holiday home just outside of Paignton as she wanted to spend some quality time with our gorgeous, edible baby girl, Autumn. Not one to pass up a freebee I was quick to sign up and head down.
Upon arriving I was keen to visit Broadsands, the best place in the UK to see and photograph cirl (pronounced sirl’) bunting.
Paignton in Devon is famous for growing population of little yellow cirl bunting. Theses are very special birds that were once a widespread bird in England. Similar to yellowhammer in the way they were associated with farmland at the beginning of the 20th century they were widespread across southern England.
But by 1989 their population crashed, dramatically to around 120 pairs exclusively restricted to south Devon with a handful left in Cornwall and Somerset. And things only go worse for these charming buntings as by the mid 1990s its range was restricted entirely to south Devon.
Due to this alarming trend a very unusual trail began in 2004. This trial saw hand reared chicks taken from the wild and then release them successfully. This trial was a success and over six successive years, 75 chicks were taken under licence from nest sites in Devon and were hand reared by aviculturalists in Cornwall.
This has seen the cirl bunting population boom and is now self sustaining, although they tend to live their entire lives within 2 miles of the nest in which they were born so their dispersal and distribution is confined to Torbay in Devon.
The males are cracking little birds, the male has a bright yellow head, with a black crown, eyestripe and throat and a greenish breast band across its otherwise yellow underparts. It also has a heavily streaked brown back.
The female is much more like the yellowhammer, but has a streaked grey-brown rump and chestnut shoulders.
Broadsands has a very large car park overlooking a small bay and the sea, but it's within the car park you will find these birds. The edges of the overspill car park gets seeded regularly during the winter and attracts all sorts of birds including small flocks of cirl bunting.
Yellowhammer (female): The seeded area naturally provides feeding opportunities for other birds, yellowhammer, robin, dunnock and chaffinch were all coming down to feed.
Yellowhammer (male): The birds on this seeded area were not shy and all it took was a bit of patient and fieldcraft to get close enough for some nice shots.
Dunnock: I particularly enjoyed spending time with the dunnocks that came down to feed, they zipped around the seeded area constantly on guard but still gave me some cracking views, u[ close they really are a stand out bird, despite them being so common and widespread.
There has been a particularly scarce bird, one that I need to my list overwintering Torbay over recent months, well before Christmas.
A drake blue-winged teal, not only is it in the area but its now moulting into its summer plumage and starting to look pretty smart.
Secretly for me, this was the whole reason for my trip to Devon. For sure it was great to see my mum and see her spend time with our little baby but I was particularly keen to go down to see this bird.
Blue-winged Teal: The long staying duck has been overwintering at Mansands for months. The bird seems at home foraging amongst the aquatic plants for food around the marshy edges of the lake.
A small duck, the adult male can be distinguished by the conspicuous white crescent in front of the eye, the broad, white band on the hind flanks, and the pale, gray-blue forewing, giving the species its common name.
Mansands like much of Devon is a lovely little place to spend the morning, although there is one mighty steep hill to navigate as you are unable to park at the bottom of the long lane due to it not being suitable for cars.
This steep hill was a killer....but worth it.
Many thanks to my mum for putting us up in such a lovely holiday home and for such a great weekend.
