Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

The reporting rate of Snow Buntings in London in the last few days has been above average and I've been hoping to find one at Canons Farm but of course I'm not nearly as free as I have been for much of the year and am stuck in a stuffy classroom for most of the day now so this makes finding one at my patch a bit tricky.

Yesterday was one of my early finished, with my last lesson ending at 12.30pm, so I was waiting for the 80 bus to get me back home to collect my gear and head for the farm when I received news of one at Beddington. I was glad for the opportunity of seeing one locally but cursed at how it meant a visit to Canons would be difficult with the limited light, I crossed the road to get the same bus in the opposite direction. I arrived and used my new lovely shiny key to get through the gate, made my way over the mound and found Johnny Allan and Ian Ellis watching the tailless but lovely male Snow Bunting feeding on a track - a top local bird. This bird marks Johnny's 196th species of 2011, thereby creating not just a personal but an overall Surrey Year List record!