Monday, April 08, 2013

Possible Lapland Bunting?

Andy H and myself were up in the Blake Dean area on Saturday afternoon and had a fly over passerine that caught us unaware and called as it passed, neither of us really got onto it in time, initial impressions of the call were "Snow Bunting like" but since we hadn't really been concentrating we let it go. Today I have had an e mail from Gary Waddington who was at Gorple on Sunday where he had a brief encounter with a possible Lapland Bunting, sadly he too was unable to confirm an ID but it clearly mustn't have been a Snow Bunting as he saw it in flight. Surfing the web and listening to calls it has become clear to me that both species can sound similar at times (see http://pjdeye.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/longspurs.html)I am now beginning to think that we may have had the same bird? Worth a check in the area if anyone is up there.

3 comments:

David Sutcliffe said...

Some of their calls are impossible to separate..well with our brief encounters. I know the feeling. A clear flight view is usually a big help. The ones that get away!!!!

Nick Carter said...

Agreed Dave, I always thought of Lap flight call to be the "prrrp tui" type but having now surfed around the web realise that the two can sound very similar!

Andrew Huyton said...

wish we'd gone upto dam rather than cutting back across fields in search of wheatear. Never mind there's always another one to be found.