A Dash Down to Ashdown for Little Bunting.

After a 15 hour birding trip yesterday, today I thought I'd .....you guessed it, go birding. While the mad wife's sunning herself in Sri Lanka I might as well make the most of it. Picked Sharpy up at Maple Cross and headed for Old Lodge NR in the Ashdown Forest Sussex. For 2.5 hours, we, along with a number of other birders, scoured the area we believed the Little Bunting had been hanging out. The glorious sound of singing Woodlarks already made the trip worthwhile for me, but with only a few false alarms from Reed Buntings, hunger and fatigue were beginning to set in. I even resorted to photographing a Robin (yes even a Raptor fanatic can appreciate our charismatic National Bird).

 However I soon got my second wind when a very decent chap appeared, having just hot footed a good quarter of a mile to inform us that he and his pal had located the Little Bunting. Like a line of Soldier Ants we followed him with a rejuvenated spring in our steps. When we arrived at the spot the decent chap's pal (no reason to think he wasn't a decent chap too) informed us that the Bunting flock had all dropped into the Juncus Rushes out of site but definitely hadn't gone anywhere. It was probably another hour before we got our reward, but get our reward we did. After the hours we'd put in for this bird, fellow Herts birder Jeff Bailley turned up, said hello, put his eye to his scope and calmly proclaimed "Here it is. It's in the tree." Well done Jeff. Just work on your punctuality mate and you can save us all some time.

Excuse the lousy quality of the pics below but better than nothing - ish.