Cretzschmar’s Bunting at Minsmere: Henry Page

Cretzschmar’s Bunting Emberiza caesia at Minsmere May 31st, 2019 First for Suffolk

Henry Page

Friday 31st May (2019) … what I thought would be a seemingly normal day at Minsmere turned into a MEGA cascade of events. I was currently living on site and involved in the RSPB’s internship programme for practical conservation. Living on site really has its perks and I was usually out on the reserve long after people had gone home or well before they’ve arrived… which was the key to this discovery. It was a blisteringly hot day and my morning was spent changing the battery and doing repairs on the Sand Martin Riparia riparia fence and other odd jobs. I also saw my first ever Broadbordered Bee Hawkmoth Hemaris fuciformis as I was heading back to the office for lunch.

I returned with the camera and, typically, the Bee-Hawkmoth had long gone. Then I was told by Cretzschmar’s Bunting at Minsmere Beach, one of my colleagues that a Hoopoe Upupa epops May 31st Henry Page had been seen at Aldringham, which he really wanted to see in his lunch break, and kindly invited me along. So as soon as his shift finished, he drove past to give me a lift there. Then all off a sudden my radio went off “I’ve just had a report from visitors that they’ve just seen an Ortolan Bunting (Emberiza hortulana), which they think could even possibly be a Cretzschmar’s Bunting which would be mega for the reserve but it has flown south”. My colleague, hearing the message as well, then said… “are you staying here then or coming to see the Hoopoe?”. I jokingly said “nah I’ll come to see the Hoopoe” - famous last word!

After returning from the briefest glimpse of a Hoopoe I’ve ever had, I worked the rest of the day and finished around 17:30pm. In the office there was talk that staff members and a number of birders had been out looking for this bunting sp. with no sign whatsoever. At this point I thought that as it was a wonderful sunny evening I might as well have a walk along the coast before heading back home to Norfolk for the weekend. My thoughts were the same as earlier when the initial message came through saying ‘flown south’ that the chances of actually finding this thing would be a needle-in-a-haystack situation… near impossible in my mind. But I tried my luck and set myself the challenge of walking from North Wall to the Dunwich Heath National Trust border and then walk the whole stretch south to Sizewell.

Deserted dunes greeted me; everyone had gone home for the day leaving me peacefully with the Dartford Warbler’s Sylvia undata, Stonechats Saxicola torquatus, Linnets Carduelis cannabina and all the other regulars. I got as far as a kilometre away from the Sizewell dome and had a young farmer’s message for a meeting at the pub for 20:00 that sounded very appealing at that point. So, I gave up and headed back towards the Sluice. Less than a minute later I noticed ‘an odd- looking Linnet’ at distance perched on the gorse. Usually in the dunes in the past when looking for anything unusual, or visitors asking for identification help, the saying ‘if in doubt, it’s a Linnet’ is said more often than not. However, as soon as I looked through my bins the excitement and

adrenaline really kicked in as I was looking at a beautifully-coloured bunting with a noticeable eye ring… I’d found it! Consequentially, being a wildlife photographer at heart, I got the camera out and took a number of shots as it flitted along the gorse in and out of the sun… my photographicfailing streak had ended third time lucky.

Less than a couple of minutes later it was unfortunately flushed as a cyclist raced past me at speed and I lost the bird from view in a flock of Linnets flying erratically then dropping down back in the scrub near the Sluice bushes. Interestingly, in all the time I was watching it, it was associating closely with the Linnets. At this point I knew I had to get the news out; I quickly took some “back-of-the-camera” shots with my phone as my camera battery was about to die because I had left the charger at home before heading to Suffolk for the week. In the same fashion, my phone was also on, left with 5% battery, after being out on the reserve all day. This isn’t a regular finder’s account where as soon as I saw the bird, I confirmed the ID and rattled off a number of ID features confirming Cretzschmar’s. I had never seen a Cretzschmar’s Bunting before, but I knew what an Ortolan looked like from images taken at Waxham, Norfolk which was a bird that I had wanted to visit the year before. From my “back-of-camera” shots, the eye ring looked bright and the slight overexposure from the phone picture made the throat look yellowish. I drafted out a tweet but, unbelievably, as soon as I pressed send, the battery expired. I knew the tweet hadn’t gone out so I had a manic long walk back to the cottage, where I waited for the phone to charge up sufficiently before getting in the car to drive to the nearest area with a phone signal.

I sent out a new rushed tweet after looking briefly at the back-of-camera shots, as by this point my camera had died as well. Saying ‘found at 18:24’ along with the location and a comment of ‘looks Ortolan to me’ with the phone photos. At this point my phone was overwhelmed with notifications of people congratulating me on clearing up the ID of the ‘mystery’ bunting.

However, one tweet stood out from the rest. Some very astute ID features noticed and commented upon by Mike Buckland alluded to the fact that it might well have been a Cretzschmar’s Bunting not Ortolan. I drove back home to Norfolk where I arrived around 22:00 and downloaded the images in order to have a proper look at them… something didn’t seem right. On closer review the bird didn’t look like an Ortolan as I had thought, as illustrated in ID books or in photos on Google. It didn’t have a bright white eye-ring as the phone shots eluded it was slightly more subtle compared with Ortolan and the throat was more of an orangey/rusty colour with stripes. Mike’s comment prompted me to post some high quality/unedited photos to confirm the identification dilemma.

In the later hours of the evening and into early morning of June 1st, fuelled by excitement, I read up on accounts of previous records of Cretzschmar’s on Fair Isle, and tried to learn as much as I could about the species. I also discussed identification with multiple people who had been kept awake by the idea of Cretzschmar’s Bunting… in Suffolk! The more I researched and the more I discussed, I further confirmed in my head that the bird I had been looking at… was in fact a Cretzschmar’s Bunting. A beautiful adult female, which should have been in Albania, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus or the Levant for breeding; the species winters in Sudan and northern Eritrea. This female is one of the very few records of the species wandering to western Europe. This is the first record for mainland Britain, a Suffolk “first” and the seventh British record – five of the previous six British records had been in May/June. On that note, at a silly hour of the morning, I eventually had a reply from Mike as to his thoughts on the photos – “‘Cretzschmar’s!!”.

At this point my 80% sure went to 100% sure, but I soon realised that I may have inadvertently caused mayhem at Minsmere so to speak. If a mega of this magnitude was relocated, hundreds of people would be turning up at the visitor centre, the team would have a serious shock to the system, and all because I put the news out. So, I checked what time sunrise was, had a quick shower and snack at 03:00 and arrived back at Minsmere and was back in the dunes by 04:30hr trying to relocate the bird – having had no sleep. I was planning, if the bird was re-found, to help with the overflow car parking. As it was, unfortunately, there was no sign of the bird; a number

of keen birders from Norfolk and Suffolk were searching for the bunting and it was fantastic to meet up with many birding friends, old and new. All was not lost though; as a consequence of so many birders being present a Broad-billed Sandpiper Limicola falcinellus was group-found as it flew in off the sea with a Ringed Plover Charadrius hiaticula and landed on the South Levels. I soon had a text alerting me of its presence, and this was a comforting distraction from searching for the bunting for many.

By 21:10hr on the Saturday evening I finally called it a very, very long day… I was exhausted. Despite the disappointment of the bird not reappearing, reflecting back on recent weeks, the reserve had had an incredible streak of birds. Two reeling Savi’s Warblers Locustella luscinioides, Iberian Chiffchaff Phylloscopus ibericus occasionally flying over the border into the bushes on North Marsh, Broad-billed Sandpiper, self-found Golden Oriole Oriolus oriolus and refound Cretzschmar’s Bunting. I was extremely proud to be working alongside such fantastic staff on one truly special reserve. Congratulations to John Norgate and other observers on the initial find and airing the possibility of it’s being Cretzschmar’s instead of Ortolan - it was that possibility and question which motivated me to find the bird and confirm it as a first for Suffolk and mainland Britain.

[Description and range

Cretzschmar’s Bunting is very similar to Ortolan – as mentioned above. It differs in several ways, however. It has a clear white eye-ring. The head, breast and lateral throat stripes are leadgrey with a red-brown throat (compared with the yellow of Ortolan). Overall, it has a rusty-brown appearance (Collins Bird Guide, 2nd edition, Svensson, Mullarney and Zetterstrom).

It is found in rocky and scrubby areas of south-eastern Europe, southern and western Turkey and parts of the Middle East.

The six previous British records, all on islands, have been on Fair Isle in June 1967, June 1979 and April/May 2014, Stronsay, Orkney, May 1988 and Bardsey, Caernarfonshire, June 2015.]