I was feeling a bit offish today, and couldn’t be bothered to go out, out – but I wanted to go somewhere, and I decided that a little trip to North Littleton Community Orchard might pay dividends. Which it did, in birding terms – I logged two dozen bird species in an hour and a half, including the new-for-year Raven, Meadow Pipit and Yellowhammer, as well as this Corn Bunting.
Sadly though, the birding was a great deal better than the photography opportunities – time was when Stonechats used to frequent this orchard and line up in rows on the fences to have their photos taken, but they no longer seem to winter there, and everything else in the area has an absolute conniption if you so much as look at it. In the end I had a choice between a long-range shot of a Fieldfare taking hawthorn berries in the midst of a tangle of branches, and this equally distant Corn Bunting in a bramble thicket. A winter thrush is hard to resist, but the Corn Bunting wins because it’s a cleaner view, and a much rarer bird. There’s more information about it, and a nice recording of its call, here.
R: L2, C4, D2.
