Bunting Bonanza!!

 With Lockdown over and Sussex and Surrey in the same Tiers ,finally got a chance to head up to Thursley ,to have a crack at the Rustic Bunting that has been present for a while, a lifer for me, also present a Little Bunting which in some ways I want to see more ,as although it's on me list, I've never had a decent view of one despite,  a cumulative total of 15 hours (approximately) wandering about various locales looking for em, the best I could manage  a brief 30 second view of one at Old Lodge a few years ago😢. 

Margie decided she would rather stay home and play with the new Shed rather than stand on a windblown heath for hours on the off chance a small brown bird sticks it's head up for a couple of seconds 😲😲seems strange to me but there you go.!! The weather forecast was for showers and it looked like it was going to be a bit chilly so I went full winter plumage (5 Layers) of course halfway through the one hour journey journey I was sweating like a pig and had the heating off and windows open!!😓as it happens though cold, the weather wasn't that bad.

The plan was to arrive at the car park at first light to be at the Bunting site for sunrise however due to spending a bit to long at me ablutions and confusing myself with the difference between First Light, Dawn and Sunrise and therefore setting me alarm wrong I was a tad late on arrival! This was even more annoying as the sunrise looked pretty spectacular from the car as I parked 😢

There was another couple of birders kitting up in the carpark, with both of us having notions to where exactly the bird was, big thankyou to the guys on the Surrey Birders Facebook group for some pinpoint directions, we set off on what was pretty much a route march that would have killed lesser men and woman, we took a wrong turn completely ignoring (as Birders do) the "Deadly Bog ahead go no further" Sign (wording may not be exactly accurate😀) however we soon rerouted and were on site (amazingly it wasn't me leading so no fault can be attributed to me for this waywardness 😀)

The dregs of the sunrise

One of them clouds where you can see what you want!!

So on site a lone birder informs us that both birds are present, phew first anxious moment averted!!😀Amazingly both birds showed well almost immediately completely denying me any kind of build-up tension!! But great to see the Rustic Bunting, a first for me, lifer number 369 on my list.

Rustic Bunting

Rustic Bunting

Rustic Bunting

At one point the Little Bunting ,the Rustic Bunting and a Reed Bunting were chasing each other about which brought the Little Bunting out of the undergrowth where it was lurking, hoorah, cracking views obtained

Little Bunting 

Damn those branches

Reed Bunting

Little Bunting no Kin branches whoop whoop!!😀😀

Little Bunting

The next couple of hours were spent trying to spot the two star birds, in amongst the Reed Buntings, Goldfinches, a feisty Robin and a couple of Stonechats. Then the rain came a substantial shower with a bit of sleet, hunched over to keep the camera dry, pretty miserable times😢☂. However the shower seemed to enliven the birds and both Buntings appeared and spread out over the heath where better birders than I soon picked them out!!😁😁

Then as we spread over the heath I found myself out to one side a bird landed in the tree next to me, as if the birding gods were rewarding me for all the hours, put in the past, it turned out to be the Little Bunting !!! Hurrah!!

The Rustic showed up as well!!!

I was flagging now and black clouds were gathering so I decided to head back towards the carpark, a Red Kite appeared low over the heath, another Sussex birder had advised me that Crossbills could be found  in the area of the carpark as I approached the said area I could see a group of birders staring up into some conifers and then could hear the distinctive call of the Crossbill, at this point the heavens opened again and I took refuge under a convenient conifer , I soon realised there was a crossbill in my chosen shelter!! Think it was just as surprised as me!!😲😲

Surprised Crossbill ,not sure how they got their name 😀

As the rain eased , I could hear several Crossbills all around , unfortunately the stunning Red Males in the group managed to avoid my attentions but a few of the others posed ok some pics below.

With the Crossbills tiring of me and heading to the higher trees where my failing back and dodgy neck couldn't follow,😢 another  Red Kite glided over ,which was pretty much the last sighting of a very enjoyable morning.

Red Kite