Christmas Day Buntings

On Christmas Day morning I managed to pop out for a couple of hours birding. I thought it would be very quiet but quite a lot of folks had the same idea and were out taking a pre-lunch walk. I decided to have a look for the East Devon Cirl Buntings. I had seen some a week or so ago but very briefly as the coast path was very busy and they were soon flushed by dog walkers. Fortunately, on this occasion I'd timed it perfectly and had some great views of six birds including a very smart male. There were lots of other birds around in the stubble fields too, including some very large flocks of Skylarks, a few Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings and the ubiquitous Stonechat of course, they really are everywhere this year! I'll be spending a lot of time exploring the coast path on my new patch in the coming year, it looks superb!

Male Cirl Bunting

Male and Female

Female

A nice back-lit shot of a female.

I like the bokeh on this.

The male is really very smart, even in winter plumage.

Meadow Pipit

Skylarks

Female Stonechat

Male Stonechat

The weather looks lovely for getting out birding in the next few days but unfortunately I'm off up t'north for a couple of days, even more unfortunately I see that the Penduline Tits were back at Dart's Farm this morning. Oh well, hopefully they'll stay for the rest of the winter and I'll catch up with them eventually. Never say never.