Sunday 9 January 2011

Lapland Bunting's on my year list ...



Late morning and early afternoon was spent playing in the snow with the offspring. We trudged up the hill at the back to wizz down repeatedly, forwards, backwards, kneeling, on belly etc. Mollie preferred to make a snow person family though, plus snow cat.

Forgoing lunch I headed straight off to Birsay where there wasn't a great deal at first. No snow either. Apparently a Glaucous Gull and 45 Snow Buntings had been present earlier. 170 Purple Sands was a good total and when I got to Palace Stores the female Hen Harrier was hunting behind the toilet block - expect the pix will be rubbish though.

As predicted

However, after a few steps across The Links a familiar trill was heard with a bunting sized beast flipping up and dropping down. Excellent views were obtained (pix may be rubbish though as the light was poor). Currently Lapland is highly sought after by PH who is chasing the county year list record, unfortunately I couldn't call for half an hour as there is no signal at Birsay. Hopefully he'll get it tomorrow.


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