From the social media posts of local East Sussex birders and research about recent sightings, I knew there was a chance I might see Corn buntings near Birling Gap. I was given the following advice: ‘If you park at Birling Gap and head east towards Beachy Head they are often to be seen as you look inland to your left from the car park.’ I was on foot, of course, but the advice was spot on. There was a field full of scrub and bramble right next to the overflow carpark, and that’s where I heard, then thought I saw my first Corn buntings in many years.

I saw ‘thought I saw’, as there were also plenty of Linnets, Meadow pipits and Skylarks in the area, all streaky brown birds that can easily be confused with each other, especially when viewed from a distance. Fortunately, the Corn bunting (Emberiza calandra) has a very distinctive call, which many have described as sounding like jangling keys and that helped me home in on these buntings. (I did take a video of one calling but the sound from the bird was obscured by the noise of passing cars, so here’s a link to the RSPB website, where you can have a listen.)

Sadly, the Corn bunting is now a red-listed bird, having suffered a population decline in Britain over the final quarter of the 20th century of as much as 90 per cent. This dramatic decline is due to changes in agricultural practice; growing crops twice each year, rather than leaving fields fallow over the winter, has meant there is no longer any stubble-field seed available to see the birds through the colder months, and the increasing use of chemicals in agriculture has led to huge declines in the insects these buntings would usually feed to their chicks. Seeing these Corn buntings at Birling Gap was, for me, both a joyful and a heart-wrenching experience.