I went up to Forest Ganol to try to get some decent Hawfinch photos today, but only got fleeting views as I was looking on the wrong side of the road. While I was there I got talking to some other birders who pointed me in the right direction and one said that there was a Little Bunting down in Forest Farm, giving good views. Little Bunting? Never heard of one, a bit like the Penduline Tit before we had that visit last year. After waiting a while I went down there and sure enough it was right in front of the hide by the Warden's Centre, absolutely perfectly placed for viewing and photography. It looks a bit like a female Reed bunting but smaller, has an orangey patch on the cheek and a white eye ring. Lovely-Looking bird! This is what Wikipedia says 'The little bunting breeds across the taiga of the far north-east of Europe and northern Asia. It is migratory, wintering in the subtropics in northern India, southern China and the northern parts of south-east Asia.] The birds remain in their winter quarters for quite long; specimens were taken in Yunnan in late March. It is a rare vagrant to western Europe. Here are a couple of photos.
This next shot is to show the difference in size between the Little Bunting and a Reed Bunting
A beautiful little bird jl, well done, no wonder you were excited!
2013 photos & vids here
eff37 on Flickr
Thanks Wendy, very pleased to be able to find this after the fruitless Hawfinch search. Apparently I just missed a flock of eight this morning. Seeing an extreme rarity is a real bonus though! probably a once in a lifetime occurrence.
You could be lucky, after all a Penduline Tit was seen & posted about just today!! Shame about the Hawfinches, then again, according to Lee Hartly they don't exist ... remember that?
Thanks John for sharing your good fortune I had never heard of aa Little Bunting before and the photo showing the size difference really helps to see how it got its name.
Regards Shane
My Photos in Flickr.
Great spot, John. I had never heard of one until I seen this post. The pale eye-ring is very distinct, a good diagnostic guide I'd think. Nice photo's by the way.
Paul
My bird photos HERE
Well done John, I haven't managed to see it. Nice pictures.
Very good photos John and an informative write up. Its nice to have a bit of background to go with the pictures. We didn't break our habits and visited the Wetlands on Saturday. It was very cold and cloudy. The Robins were hopping right up to people all around the site even before Sandra got her seeds out.
We had seen pictures of the Little Bunting on Birdguides and went along this morning. It was a beautiful bright crisp day. We walked straight to the normal hides to see mainly frozen water and a single snipe.
There were a few birdwatchers around including us not sure where to go to find the Little Bunting. Back over the bridge near the visitor centre were the directions we received. We didn't know there was a visitor centre. I googled 'Little Bunting Forest Farm' on my phone and your post was top of the search results. Now all we had to do was find the warden's office. That we could do via one of the maps. Very close to the car park was a hide I hadn't visited before. Unbelievably the Little Bunting was feeding right in front of the hide within 2 or 3 metres when we got there, oblivious to the activity. Despite your excellent photos I can't resist posting one as it isn't a bird that we will see every year (decade).
Here's a link to a short video of the bird.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/cjlougher/16287633788/
Thanks Shane, Paul and David. I'm guessing that very few of us had heard of the Little Bunting[ not surprising considering its rarity. It must have been a really ace birder that spotted it and realised it wasn't just a young Reed Bunting or whatever.
Wendy I know what you mean about 'Hawfinches don't exist' and Lee Gardner of this forum, who has that as his profile footnote, ironically posting photos of some that he shot on Yews in a Churchyard in Somerset. Yesterday they were around: I heard them and saw some fly over and land high and obscured in the tops of trees, I do think that if I'd known for sure the area to look in (as I do now) and waited patiently before the other six photographers arrived and stood very visibly in the open, makng it less likely that they'd land, I might have had a chance to see some on the ground. Well it's less than 30 minutes drive so will definitely keep trying! There were compensations - when I walked the wrong way I went up a track through the forest where there were Woodpeckers drumming in the valley below and one flew and towards me and drummed in the tree above - the first time I've heard that! A Raven flew over and did a circuit 'cronking' and there were loads of Nuthatches.
Wow Colin you posted that while i was typing my reply so just seen your post. Fabulous photos - like you I didn't know about that hide until the last time I went there and got the Kingfisher photos. I was lucky enough to get good directions from a local birder and when I was told it was in front of the Warden's hide i knew exactly where to go! So glad you caught the Bunting, it is so obliging, not only by visiting Britain as a rare vagrant but choosing a location where it could be seen by so many and posing right in front of the hide - as you said it's a once in a lifetime opportunity!