Friday 17 September 2010

Gropper at Canons!


You go out looking for Wrynecks and Lapland Buntings and you find a Grasshopper Warbler amongst a flock of Sparrows. May not be as rare as the former two but it was very unexpected and the first record for Canons Farm & Banstead Woods. It showed quite well for a Gropper, too. I walked across the Quail Field aiming to find a Lapland Bunting in the stubble, about half way along I flushed two relatively large bunting-ish birds that gave a brief rattle as they flew off south east. The only plumage detail I got on them was two pale stripes down the back of one of them. Quite possibly Lapland Bunting but I would need much better views before I make the claim . . . no further sign in the evening, hopefully they'll be back tomorrow morning to be clinched.

Grasshopper Warbler brings me to 88 for Canons Farm and 155 for the local area.