A ridiculously confiding Lapland Bunting at Staines Reservoir

 

The Lapland Bunting is certainly not a bird I expect to see annually. In fact, the last one I saw was 4 years ago on the Malvern Hills. So when a very confiding  and photogenic male was found on the causeway at Staines Reservoir in Surrey I planned a trip to see it. Other commitments determined that the first day I could go was Friday just gone. Given that it had been there a few days already, I decided to wait for it to be reported before setting off as crawling around the M25 to dip a bird I have seen before was not very appealing! I kept an eye on both RBA and our excellent “Twitching the UK and Ireland” WhatsApp group and was pleased to see it reported on our group just before 08:00. Oddly, it didn’t get reported on RBA for another hour so it was a good job I was not solely reliant on that source of information.

 

The causeway on the reservoir is quite long so I parked at the end where it was mostly being reported from and walked up to the causeway. The last time I was here was a few years back when an American Horned Lark was at the same location. A small group of birders were watching the Bunting a little way along the causeway so I quickly joined them and settled down to watch and enjoy the bird

 

This bunting, as its name implies, breeds across Arctic Europe and the Palearctic  across to Canada and the northernmost United States. It is migratory  wintering in the Russian steppes, the southern United States, Southern Sweden, Denmark and, in small numbers, the UK.   

 

In North America it is known as the Lapland Longspur. In appearance it is a robust little bird, slightly larger than our common Reed Bunting, with a thick seed-eater's bill. The summer male, which we never see in the UK, has a black head and throat, white eye stripe, chestnut nape, white underparts, and a heavily streaked black-grey back. The winter plumage birds we see in the UK have an orange-brown head, a browner back and chestnut nape and wing panels.

 

To say it was confiding would be an understatement! If it had been a bird kept in collections its “wild” origin would be seriously challenged. At times it was only a couple of feet away and I had to move back to be able to focus on it. The causeway was quite narrow, perhaps 6 foot across, and as non-birders walked by it would hop a few inches through the railings and come back immediately the interloper had passed. It flew down the causeway a couple of times but always returned to its favourite spot, I strongly suspect that this had been seeded by a birder. It was certainly full of character bobbing in and out of the grass and onto the worn path as it fed. In my mind at least its chestnut nape and subtle grey and brown plumage contrasting with its white breast gave it a very dapper neat appearance.

 

After taking far too many photos I walked down the causeway to see a small flock of Black-necked Grebes which were wintering on the reservoir, their subdued winter plumage in marked contrast to the colourfully attire they transform into during breeding season. 

  

Black-necked Grebe at Staines

In contrasting summer plumage a few years back at Farmoor 

Come early afternoon I set sail for home to try and avoid the Friday afternoon chaos on the motorway. This morning our winter visitor was back on the causeway feeding, I wonder how long he will stay?

 

 Footnote – my blogs are posted with sometimes rather imaginative spelling and grammar due to my extreme dyslexia!