Rustic Bunting in Lowestoft: Rob Holmes

Rustic Bunting Emberiza rustica in Lowestoft – October 3rd and 4th 2020

Rob Holmes

A curious paradox of a passion for birds is the not-infrequent desire for misfortune to befall their migrations. this contradiction is none more so than in autumn when birds of the year are embarking on maiden migrations carried by inexperienced wings. Malign and inclement weather systems are eagerly awaited by birders beguiled by these great winged departures from distant breeding sites. the forecast for Saturday october 3rd 2020 held great promise for a conspiracy of season, weather and avian misadventure.

With high pressure reaching deep into northern europe and a lurking low-pressure system centred over france moving northwards, the trap was set. the conducive conditions over Scandinavia induced a major departure of migrants fleeing cooler, darker, northern latitudes. Drifting on the easterlies out over the German Bight sea area west of Denmark, nocturnal migrants increasingly found themselves funnelled along a rain-laden frontal edge of low cloud in the southern North Sea. Bearing: north Suffolk coast. imperative: landfall. At dawn, the vanguard of the overnight flight began to arrive in the increasingly tempestuous conditions. these itinerants included an east Asia-bound bunting: an egg in June; now a detoured rider of the storm.

Arriving at Lowestoft North Denes early morning, a circuit of the disused overgrown campsite produced a trickle of arriving Song thrushes Turdus philomelos and a noticeable increase in migrant robins Erithacus rubecula. Bumping into Andrew easton at the foot of Gunton cliff, we joined forces to work the vegetation for migrants; a fleeing common Snipe Gallinago gallinago towards the end of our search gave momentary excitement. Having combed the usual spots with little reward, Andrew headed back to his car at the Denes oval and i retraced my steps to Links Hill.

Ascending Links road, the ticking and flicking of robins along the southern edge of Warrenhouse Wood demanded a closer look. Approaching the stunted White Poplar Populus alba clump on the seaward side of this most-easterly wood, newly-arrived robins were holding court all along the

elm-dominated edge (Ulmus sp.). overhead, the Song thrush rush was quickening, the ‘tsips’ of these voyagers from across the North Sea increasingly punctuating the gloomy october morning.

Scanning the robin ranks for something blue-tailed, amongst the soundscape of ticking transients i became aware of a tick with a difference: a thin, high-pitched ‘tsic’ almost beyond the edge of hearing. insistent and close by, a minute passed before i realised that this enigma was emanating from the poplars immediately in front of me. Despite its apparent proximity, i could not locate the source. time was ticking, quite literally.

At this point, a robin came to the rescue and saw off the ticking target, the mystery bird flying – still calling – a short distance to a Gorse Ilex sp. bush in the nearby marram grass Ammophilia arenaria. Bins up, a bunting. Back on, jinking in the shaded gorse litter. White tips to the wing coverts, bubble-gum pink legs, whitish underparts…with raspberry-ripple flank stripes, and, turning, a face with yellow tramlines. And raised crown feathers hinting at a crest. the jigsaw puzzle was rapidly piecing together. this was no reed Bunting E. shoeniclus despite the rational part of my mind attempting to sabotage my optimism. rustic Bunting! urgently switching to documentary mode, a few photographs were rattled off just as the bunting slunk into the marram out of view. A call to Andrew to cautiously announce my ‘ticking bunting’ discovery luckily reached him before he had reached his car. Arriving post-haste, we reviewed my back-of-camera images.

Moving into the dunes to view the area where i thought the bunting would be, resulted in its flushing towards Links road car park where it alighted in a small patch of marram. With Andrew in agreement as to the identity, the news was announced on my twitter feed and the local birders’ WhatsApp group.

As the first birders began to arrive, the rustic Bunting eventually showed in the Links road car park thanks to Andrew’s relocation. the bunting proved to be exceptionally confiding and performed well throughout the day to an appreciative audience. it was seen early the next morning in the same area but was reported to have flown high to the south around 08:15hr, the last sighting. Ageing and sexing of E. rustica in the field is considered doubtful, although the obviously-pointed retrices (tail flight feathers) are highly suggestive of its being a first calendar year (-winter) bird. the rustic Bunting has undergone a marked population decline since the 1980s (edenius et al, 2016, Cambridge University Press), with some parallels to the drastic range-wide population collapse of the yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola. Since the 1990’s peak, occurrences have declined with it having been re-admitted to the BBrc list in 2015 (after having been removed in 2006).

rustic Bunting: Suffolk records

County # Site First / Last Seen

5th Lowestoft october 3rd and 4th 2020

Notes

first-winter 4th Landguard September 23rd and 24th 2008 first-winter, trapped and ringed 3rd corton September 14th 1996 age and sex uncertain 2nd Landguard october 3rd 1992 immature male 1st Minsmere october 24th 1962 female, trapped and ringed

A spring record in Suffolk is long overdue. of Norfolk’s 17 records of rustic Bunting (to the end of 2019), seven have been in the spring between March 27th and June 9th, although four were during the period May 16th to 23rd.

According to British Birds 113:648, the rustic Bunting breeds in northern Sweden and finland eastwards across russia to eastern Siberia and the kamchatka peninsula, and southwards to the Baikal region. the species generally migrates south-eastwards to winter in eastern china, the korean peninsula and southern Japan.