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Tag Archives: Corn bunting

273/365 Corn buntings

30 Monday Sep 2019

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Corn bunting

I’m just back from the annual Glamorgan Bird Club 3-day trip to the Portland Bird Observatory, one of the highlights of my birding year so, be warned, the next few days’ blog posts will be a bit birdy!

190930 corn buntings (2)190930 corn buntings (1)

En route to Portland last Friday, we stopped for a short time in the car park at Maiden Castle hill fort, near Dorchester. You may well think that an odd place to go birding but we are almost certain to spot Corn buntings there, birds we never see in my part of Wales. And we were certainly not disappointed – in fact, we saw more Corn buntings this year than I’ve ever seen before, and many were enjoying a fun splash in the puddles along the dirt road leading in to the site. A delight to watch!

190930 corn buntings (3)

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133/365 Birding on Salisbury Plain

13 Monday May 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, insects, nature

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Tags

#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, British birds, British butterflies, Brown argus, butterflies, Corn bunting, Great bustard, Marsh fritillary, Salisbury Plain, Small blue butterfly, White Horse

Yesterday’s Glamorgan Bird Club trip to Salisbury Plain, RSPB Winterbourne Downs and Martin Down National Nature Reserve was amazing. The weather was stunning, the bird sightings were brilliant, as were the butterflies, and, as always, the company was wonderful.

190513 Salisbury (1)

190513 Salisbury (3)
190513 Salisbury (2)

The views from high on Salisbury Plain were lovely – we even had a distant view of the White Horse, though it was a little disconcerting being so close to the military impact area and to have the serenading of the plentiful skylarks occasionally shattered by the booms of exploding shells. The joy-riding trailbikers and off-roaders weren’t exactly peaceful either.

190513 great bustard

Still, we saw some amazing birds – I managed to spot the only Great bustard of the day (you’ll just have to believe me when I say that the head in the centre of the dip in the vegetation in the photo above is definitely a Great bustard!) and we had splendid ’scope sightings of Stone curlews and chicks at Winterbourne – both bird sightings were lifers for me. My best bird photo of the day was the Corn bunting shown below – captured out of the car window as we drove by.

190513 corn bunting

We also enjoyed some superb butterfly sightings – my first Small blues and Brown Argus for the year, and, finishing on a high, my first ever (two) Marsh fritillaries at Martin Down.

190513 small blue
190513 brown argus

190513 marsh fritillary

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103/365 Distant, blurry and bottoms

13 Saturday Apr 2019

Posted by sconzani in 365DaysWildin2019, birds, nature

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

birding, birding at Marshfield, birding at Pilning, birdwatching, British birds, Corn bunting, Little ringed plover, Red-legged partridge, Redstart, Ruff, Wheatear, Yellowhammer

Distant, blurry and bottoms. These three words tell the story of the photographs I took on today’s Glamorgan Bird Club trip to Marshfield and Pilning, both places across the border in Gloucestershire. But don’t be misled by the (lack of) quality of my photos – it was a superb day, with birds I don’t often see at Marshfield (Yellowhammers, Corn buntings, and Red-legged partridges), as well as several Wheatears and a stunning male Redstart. And at Pilning, at the water’s edge between the two Severn bridges, I was able to add Little ringed plover, Yellow wagtail and Ruff to my year list. And as for those photos … well, see for yourself …

190413 1 yellowhammer

The blurry bottom of a Yellowhammer

190413 2 wheatear

A distant, blurry Wheatear

190413 3 corn bunting

The distant, blurry bottom of a Corn bunting sitting on top of a tree

190413 4 redstart

There’s a distant Redstart in this picture

190413 5 red-legged partridge

The blurry bottoms of two Red-legged partridges as they flew away

190413 6 little ringed plover

A distant, blurry Little ringed plover

190413 7 ruff

A very distant, very blurry Ruff

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Birding at Maiden Castle

29 Monday Oct 2018

Posted by sconzani in birds, nature

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

birding, birdwatching, British birds, Corn bunting, Glamorgan Bird Club, Golden plover, Kestrel, Maiden Castle

This past Friday to Sunday was the annual Glamorgan Bird Club long weekend trip to Portland Bird Observatory, and my second visit to the fascinating island of Portland. But first the trip down …

181029 birding at maiden castle (1)

Eleven of us left south Wales in various car-share combinations and via various routes to meet up around 10am at Maiden Castle, just outside of Dorchester. The ‘castle’ is, of course, not a castle but rather an ancient Iron Age hillfort, one of the largest in Europe.

181029 birding at maiden castle (3)

I still haven’t managed to explore the site itself, as our primary reason for meeting there is because we’re almost certain to see a Corn bunting, a bird we don’t get in Wales so it’s a year tick for most of us and a lifer for some. (You’ll need to believe me when I say that the small brown blob sitting on the fence is a Corn bunting.)

181029 birding at maiden castle (2)

Sitting in the field adjacent to the Maiden Castle carpark were over a hundred Golden plovers, a bird that seems common in this area as we also saw a large flock of them on the 2017 trip.

181029 birding at maiden castle (4)
181029 birding at maiden castle (5)
181029 birding at maiden castle (6)
181029 birding at maiden castle (7)

We were also treated to our first of many Kestrel sightings of the weekend. After a bit of fence-post sitting and some hovering, this beautiful little bird plunged down to the earth in a nearby field, having apparently caught something. It fluttered about several times, as if its prey was still alive and trying to escape and the Kestrel was having trouble subduing it.

181029 birding at maiden castle (8)

My long lens wasn’t quite long enough to identify the victim but, whatever it was, it seems it may have been too large and/or heavy for the Kestrel to carry as the bird eventually flew off empty-clawed.

181029 birding at maiden castle (9)

Soon afterwards – though probably unrelated – something spooked the Golden plovers and they treated us to a wonderful display of formation flying before settling again further off. And that was our cue also to head off, to our next stop en route to Portland.

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About me

sconzani

sconzani

I'm a writer and photographer; researcher and blogger; birder and nature lover; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and biodiversity recorder.

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