October 25th 2024 – the last chance saloon.

Having always been more inspired by trying to find birds than looking at other people’s Lincolnshire has been a good location for me and in the course of my 56 years’ birding forays I have managed to find 12 new birds for the county and a total of 303 self-found species but in recent times things had rather dried up on the bird finding stakes and adding another species to the county list seemed rather unlikely given that many of the obvious gaps had already been filled. A total knee replacement in mid-August 2023 at least gave me an excuse for finding nothing during the rest of the autumn but spring 2024 was dire and I estimated I had walked 500 miles and not found a single scarce migrant. Early autumn was no better and in a lighter moment I even put out a joking Tweet suggesting that I was due a big find in the autumn;

https://x.com/GPCbirding/status/1825087577679937739

That would be some prediction. As we all know September is a month of constant westerlies with no East Coast potential so a two-week trip to Western Canada, postponed twice already, seemed a safe bet but pre-departure weather maps showing highs all the way to Eastern Siberia were a little worrying. Trying to avoid looking at bird news while I was away sadly failed and I had clearly missed the fall of the autumn – what had I missed in Lincs? Back in early October a local walk turned up a pair of Snow Geese with the Humber Pink-feet https://www.grahamcatley.com/blog-1/twosnowgeeseonthehumber birds with the best credentials of any I had seen in the county but the weather pattern for the next two weeks looked decidedly uninspiring and after daily early morning rounds of Waters’ Edge in search of a Yellow-browed Warbler someone else found one in the viewing area while I was 400m away! It seemed the birding gods had turned against me again. Looking at the wind predictions for the next few days on windy.com on 23rd it looked at if a light south-easterly on 25th could maybe, just maybe produce a few birds. A decision was made and I headed to Donna Nook for what may be a last chance saloon for the autumn. The coastal strip between Ponderosa and Pye’s Hall had been good to me over the years since I started working it in the late 80’s with my best days migration on October 18th 1990 being written up in the December 1992 issue of Birdwatch Magazine. Other notable rare finds included Central Asian Lesser Whitethroat, Siberian and Stejneger’s Stonechats, three Pallas’s Warblers in a day and then of course the nearly finds like the Little Bunting that I was on the wrong side of the dunes when Chris and Neil found it and two skulking locustellas one on October 29th that must surely have been a goody. Talking of Little Bunting my list of 334 British self-found species did not include a single bunting but I did find the second Little Bunting for Cyprus! With the Environment Agency destruction of the Pye’s Hall migrant trap and the progressive death of the dune scrub and trees the Stonebridge to Pye’s sector had clearly less potential to hold migrants but with a couple of Red-backed Shrikes, Barred Warblers and while I was away Siberian Stonechat and Red-breasted Flycatcher the locale still had pulling power.

Driving down to Donna on the 25th it was foggy all the way with light drizzle and the last approach produced a few thrushes in the roadside hedges always a positive sign but the car park bushes were not jumping with migrants. The weather remained damp and foggy so I only took my 100-500 lens and set of towards Pye’s.

The rather sad remans of the former migrant trap that was Pye’s Hall on a sunny day

A few Redwings and Song Thrushes in the bushes with a couple of ticking Robins were scant reward as I approached the dell on the inland side of the dunes. A gang of Reed Buntings, standard Stonebridge – Pye’s fodder, were flighting between the dell and the saltmarsh then at about 09:45 I heard a thin tsic call coming from out on the edge of the saltmarsh. It seemed unfamiliar but was clearly not the tic of a Little or Rustic Bunting. Could it be just a Song Thrush or an odd Robin call? The fog was a little less dense but there was still a light drizzle and visibility was not good. I decided to walk out into the saltmarsh just to be sure the call was coming from something common. Reed Buntings kept getting up from the tide wrack just beyond a small clump of sea buckthorn and conveniently perching in full view. The call had gone and I was almost about to give up looking when what appeared to be a Reed Bunting got up and perched with its back to me about 10m away. It looked unremarkable but kept fanning its tail revealing large amounts of white on the two outermost feathers then it leant forward and dropped down. Other birds, Dunnocks, Wrens and the odd Chaffinch were still getting up and I moved to scanning them when the bird I had been watching suddenly flew out and called the tsic call as it headed for the large hawthorns in the dell – IDIOT why did I not look closer at it when it was in view? I suppose because it looked quite like a Reed Bunting and I had forgotten just how similar first-winter Black-faced Bunting can be to Reeds but this was surely just an odd Reed Bunting and the call was from another bird?. Not wanting to flush it again I scanned the hawthorns in the dell from a distance and eventually saw it climbing up through one tall hawthorn. In the fog it looked as unremarkable as before but then it turned to face me and a striking pale sub-moustachial stripe and chin – throat with a pale pink lower mandible said this is no Reed Bunting but it cannot be a Black-faced Bunting! The rest of the underparts were creamy with the most prominent dark streaks on the rear flanks and the legs pale fleshy pink. It turned side on and the head pattern with just a faint paler supercilium and grey shawl were visible while the upperparts lacked any pale tram lines shown by most Reed Buntings and looked more Dunnock like. I scrambled for the camera and managed to take a few images through the fog before it flew into the other end of the dell. I managed a few further brief views in the hawthorns but when it landed on the track all the birds flushed before I could creep round the reeds to view them. Then it showed one more time in the big hawthorn and I lost it. Two birds flew out and across the saltmarsh towards the inundation channel but I wasn’t sure if it was one of them. I spent the next hour desperately trying to re find it but failed to see or hear anything and then I eventually dared to look at the miniscule pictures on the back of camera. The first ones had its head turned away and were distinctly soft then there was a side-on shot that looked to be almost in focus! And then there was one showing the head – on view. It looked good but I was still doubting myself and needed some confirmation. A quick look at Birdguides showed a scatter of Yellow-browed Warblers on the East coast but nothing major not even at Spurn – how could I have the only eastern mega? Another search of all the Reed Bunting hot spots revealed a fall of Dunnocks, 20+ in total, Wrens and at least 40 – 50 Reed Buntings but no sign of the Black-faced. At this point I realised two things my phone was nearly flat and the latest Collin’s App only has an image of an adult male Black-faced Bunting. I took two BOC shots of my dire images and WhatsApped them to a few people in the county. Asking James Siddle if I was making a big up cock his immediate response from Scilly was No! but apart from Neil Drinkall who identified it no-one else responded and I assume they wondered why I was sending them pictures of a Reed Bunting! The bird had disappeared at around 10:15 and understandably only a couple of people made the effort to come and join the search but I stuck at it for another six hours before giving up and heading home to check references on ID.

Looking at the new Handbook of European Birds by Nils van Duivendijk there was an image of a first-winter that was even less marked than my bird but all the features were supportive and other texts mentioned the call and the tail fanning habit. Happy that this was indeed a Black-faced Bunting I put a message on the Lincs Rare bird WhatsApp group that night but pointed out the negative search details.

The original image showing what little there was to work on through the fog and murk 

First-winter Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 25th 2024 - the faint paler central crown stripe, pale creamy sub-moustachial and chin and the pale pink lower mandible are visible in this shot alomng with the faint paler wing bars, creamy almost yellow tinged underparts with heaviest black streaking on the rear flanks and the Dunnock like black and brown striped mantle scapulars

First-winter Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 25th 2024 - the slightly rust terial fringes and again the heavy black rear flank streaking stand out - pale fleshy legs almost visible 

While trying to relocate the bunting in the scrub I made this sound recording of the call which I had completely forgotten about in the subsequent mayhem.

On the following morning, Saturday 26th a small group of birders gathered in the area where the bird was last seen but in spite of there being good numbers of Reed Buntings present there was no sign of the bunting in question by 09:46 when I received a call from Owen Beaumont informing me that he had re found the bird with a small group of Reed Buntings and it had been trapped at the regular ringing site at Quad three! This was somewhat staggering as the ringing site was, as the bunting flies in a direct line not using the coastal route, 3.85kms or 2.4 miles from where it was last seen. Surely there were not two! Owen kindly brought the bird round to Stonebridge as we assembled all the searchers present and it was briefly photographed before being released into the hawthorn by the car park emitting a rather loud series of hard tsic call notes, somewhat more agitated sounding than the calls heard the previous day. It preened briefly in the hawthorn before flying out and across the road and into more impenetrable scrub south of the car park. In spite of my views being less than optimal on the previous day it did not show any obviously different features and the assumption had to be made that it was indeed the same bird particularly given the species rarity in a British context although news of a third bird for the autumn trapped in Pembrokeshire the same morning does raise the question has there been a major movement of this species into western Europe this autumn?

First-winter probably female Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 26th 2024

First-winter probably female Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 26th 2024

First-winter probably female Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 26th 2024

First-winter probably female Black-faced Bunting Donna Nook October 26th 2024

So, persistence pays and the bird finding gods do eventually reward. My 13th addition to the Lincolnshire list – will there be a 14th? At last, a rare bunting and being the 12th for Britain a major rare bunting find – maybe now I can find some more regular rare buntings.

Update from October 29th - some slightly better field images but the bird very elusive and never remotely close for photography

with a Reed Bunting for direct comparison 

Identifiable on a vis mig?