This was very welcome. While mulling over how to fill my day this morning, another ideal short distance twitch announced itself from the listings on RBA. A much sought autumn migrant, Rustic Bunting had been found in East London late on the previous day and was being watched again as I thought things over.
Autumn is said to have come alive this week with a number of outstanding vagrants turning up around the British Isles. The top draws were a first ever White-rumped Swift in East Yorkshire, only a second Gray Catbird in Cornwall, and a seventh Two-barred Greenish Warbler in Norfolk. But I have had very meaningful past experiences of the first two abroad and felt no inclination to perform feats of endurance just to see either in this country. The third is always difficult and was once again proving elusive in the unforgiving dip-trap that is Holkham Pines, at the end of a tedious drive to the north Norfolk coast.
Today’s Rustic Bunting was a different matter entirely, being a Siberian breeding drift migrant I had been tracking for some time, waiting for a suitable opportunity. If seen it would be my second new Bunting in Britain this autumn, and most importantly it was well within preferred range at just over 80 miles. Wanstead is in the suburbs of East London where I grew up, so would evoke its share of early life associations. And the fast motorway drive via the M40, M25 and M11 would be an opportunity to give a proper work out to September’s new Slash and Myles album on my in-car CD player – remember those? Just before 10am a further sighting was posted, and off I set.
2016 Rustic Bunting at Kilnsea, East Yorks © and courtesy of Andrew Last
Rustic Bunting is an annual vagrant that has declined in this century from around 20 British records a year in the 1990s to far fewer now. This was one of several scarce drift migrants that clustered in Yorkshire in the outstanding autumn of 2016, and was seen (pictured above) by a number of Oxon birders. Since then I have been waiting for nearer occurrences of more annual autumn species to go after. Amongst them, available Olive-backed Pipit and Greenish Warbler have remained too difficult for my liking. But now patience has been rewarded again for he who waited with the appearance of this RB in such an unexpected urban location. Wanstead of course has a very well-known patch watcher and blogger (see here) who is not entirely unconnected with some of the better records that come from there.
I arrived on-site just after midday, feeling suitably uplifted by all those aforementioned new riffs and solos en route. Remembering the way from the end of the M11, I found much of Wanstead to be relatively unchanged and still a genteel, leafy suburb of mainly large mature houses. But I cannot recall the last time I visited the Flats. Using a car park by Centre Road I could see a lot of birders nearby, but they all seemed to be moving around and looking in different directions suggesting the bird was not currently on view.
I appreciated at once why birds should be attracted to Wanstead Flats (TQ409865) being a large open area of original habitat amongst the urban sprawl of East London. Moving around and listening to various conversations, the people I met sounded very knowledgeable, having between them been at many of this autumn’s major national twitches. A few had just got back from Corvo in the Azores and I learned one of those was none other than Bird Guides editor Dominic Mitchell, to whom I subsequently kept quite close thinking this might increase my chances of seeing the bird. I heard all about our quest’s movements through the morning and how it had fed on the ground for 40 minutes on Sunflower seed spread by the gathered birders before becoming more mobile. That food supply was now being consumed rapidly by a flock of Corvids and other birds.
It was hence a matter of watching and waiting for a shout to go up. I was joined first by fellow Oxon birder Steve Jennings then, inevitably Adam for whom also this bird would be a lifer. After about an hour the Rustic Bunting was called anew, and all the scattered birders hurried to a particular spot. I first glimpsed my lifer flying on from there to the baited location where it proceeded to perch prominently giving everyone present excellent views. The habitat here is recovering from a recent scrub fire, and so the bird stood out nicely as it moved between various still charred perches.
Rustic Bunting © rights of owner reserved
This bird certainly looked quite different from other brown Buntings – Reed, Little and Lapland – I had seen before, but I had not read up on the plumage (above) before departure. Having done so now I will not go into too great detail. But as I watched the rather peaked head pattern, with a broad, creamy buff supercilium and dark ear coverts stood out well. There is a generally more contrasting pattern overall than the common and widespread Reed Bunting, with darker upperparts and a whiter ground colour to the underparts. Since I did not get pictures I will not claim to have noticed more than that. For the RBA gallery of today’s bird (1w) see here.
When the RB flew again most of the gathering were pleased with having enjoyed such good views and began to disperse. I too moved on first to visit my grandparents’ grave (above left) in a nearby burial ground, then Wanstead Public Library where I had worked as a school leaver. After buying a sandwich and sitting to eat it in Wanstead High Street I once again felt that not too much has changed in all these years, if the giant trenches and tunnels of the modern road infrastructure are ignored.
This had been a most excellent excursion. I gained a much desired bird lifer, the day was filled pretty much to perfection, and the new disc was up to standard; the last of those being perhaps the most certain outcome of all. To make sure I played “Living the Dream” again on the way back to Oxford and home, then the best bits over and over.
Lastly, here (above) are some of the gorgeous Gray Catbirds across the car park from that dingy motel room in Homestead, Florida last January. To have jostled and competed with a field full of grumpy birders all desperate for a glimpse of just one of these at Lands End would simply have detracted from and demeaned this recollection. My only White-rumped Swift zipped past and onward in southern Portugal in May 2014, but hey I self-found it and that was a better view than most of British twitching’s finest got in Blighty earlier this week. Maybe waiting patiently to live the dream, on my own terms or especially within range, can be motivating after all.
Ramblings and Scribblings 