Corn Does The Job

Two options faced me this morning. 1. Focus on some wedding that was apparently going on, or 2. Get up and find something good at the patch. Instead, I chose a combination. I slept til 11, realised I'd overslept and hared up to the patch. I did the usual check which was fairly quiet. Then came something I was not expecing (well I was - just not today). in birding I reckon you make your own luck, with endeavour. If you get up early and put in the hours, you get the good birds. If you don't go up the patch til midday, you shouldn't expect too much. Well, I don't know how it happened - but it did, and for that I am thankful.

1:49 p.m - I went to the farmhouse where I'd had Whinchat and Tree Sprog this year so was hoping for another good find. I managd to evade the bloody geese that have been the scourge of birding at the farmhouse and the source of many leg wounds.

1:50 p.m - bored, checked the pager, two Red-footed Falcons in Norfolk. I wondered what the chances of them turning up down here were - pretty slim I guessed.

1:51 p.m - it's nice that there's always House Sparrows about round here, nice fem there, and there and...hello!! I put the bins down and started to photograph my quarry. It stayed for a bit before flying off high east. I sent out the news - probable Corn Bunting. Nothing else I could do til I got home.

Once home, I blew it up on the comp. That's a Corn Bunt I thought. I sent the pic to Gareth Lewis to get a second opinion and the news cam back - 'reed bunt'. I was absolutely deflated. I also sent it to Devil Birder and later got the text ' that's a corn bunt mate'.

Officially, this is the fifth Surrey record since the turn of the century. However, I think WALBOC kicked up six records last year! None were submitted though, and so this remains the fifth Surrey Corn Bunting since the turn of the millenium. How's that for luck??

There will be pics of Corn Bunts, Whichats, Common Tern, Hobby etc. soon enough.

Brilliant.

WALBOC Patchlist: 103
WALBOC Yearlist: 101