Ortolan Bunting has been a bogey bird for some years. I’ve never been near one in the UK and I’ve unknowingly driven past them in Spain and Greece, only to be told later that I had missed one.
This week has seen an influx into the south coast, but typically they have been flyover birds or birds that vanished immediately, so couldn’t be twitched. An afternoon in the right habitat on Friday produced nothing at all, so I was beginning to despair again. On Saturday morning, though, a bird had stayed overnight and was hanging around near Portsmouth, so off we went.
It was still there when we arrived, but was an example of why the birds are so difficult: despite the fact that we knew where it was to within a few feet in a field with short cover, it remained invisible until it was flushed, whereupon it perched up on a hawthorn and showed well. Bogey bird no more!
