Maybe not such are rare bird for London, but not one that comes with the promise of good views and there's a good chance it may still be in the long grass to the south of the Alex tomorrow. According to the Prof, the last bird at Walthamstow, that wasn't a flyover, stayed for 2 days, so here's hoping that Tim and Sally (even Next-day Keith) can have a look-see.
I've never seen one so well, but it didn't start out like that. In the last few years we've had big buntings at this time, down by the Alex, last year I had one with a greenish hue to its back: didn't have time to refind that little bastard, the same year Jono and I had an unidentified big-un circling the pub scrub, that neither of us could get any detail on. My Laps in London have all been flyovers, or calling only jobs either here or at Rainham.
Walking back by the Alex, the bunting prrrted out of the willows and started on one of its many circuits of the grassland before plonking itself down. As it wasn't white I was pretty sure that it was a Lap, but I could almost hear the groans emanating from Canary Wharf if I just left it at that, and as it was grounded I felt I had a pretty good chance of bagging it either in flight (which proved impossible) or on the deck. After half an hour of flushing and circuits with me hoping that this time it wouldn't bugger off. I texted Richard to give credence to my vain efforts.
He took what felt like hours to arrive, in which time the bird had been flushed by a group of uncontrolled dogs and had buried itself somewhere near the ditch. I would wait.
Richard is a jammy bugger. He strolls up and as we approach the last known pitchdown place, there it is wandering around the tussocks. Made his day, made mine, made one or two other folks' day too. Hang about that's one of my blockers gone...
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