Little Bunting

Little Bunting kick starts the 2018 lifer list. Today saw me heading out in the gloom, rain, cold over to Walthamstow Wetlands. A place i have only been to once before to see a dying Gannet not to very far from where i stood today.

Its changed a lot, its accessible and has a nice cafe. I'm beginning to like visiting places where you get charged over the top prices for coffee. £2.80 for a Latte, smaller than Costa's small and more than the cost of a medium., mmmmm. It was OK but didn't warrant the price tag. And in my effort to ruin the planet like everyone else, i got it to take out. However this was on the way home so i've jumped ahead.

Luckily i got stuck in traffic on the A406 or my wait in the rain would have been longer, i don't enjoy travelling to London birds, it took me forever last year to get to Wanstead for a Slav Grebe and i didnt even get to see it. Today took just over and hour which considering it took me 20-25 minutes to get home is a pain.

At the site and numerous people were now all chatting, no body looking for the bird. Chat chat chat. One bloke even on the phone facing the wrong way and after 10 minutes of chat advised to the recipient of his call that nobody was looking for the bird, everyone was chatting.

In my company were two of the Wanstead boys, Jono and James. James had ticked it earlier so he quietly took his leave and headed for the drake Scaup on No. 5 Reservoir.

Me & Jono persevered. A fair few Reed Bunting and Dunnock. Kingfisher behind us. Fieldfare chacked off to our right. Other bits knocking about but no Little Bunting.

After about an hour another Reed Bunting flew into the main bush in front, both of us then witnessed another bird fly in lower down but it went further in. We couldn't see it too well so reverted to scopes. It still couldn't be see that well when it turned slightly and Jono called it.

💥💥 Tick Tick Boom 💥💥

It showed probably for about 5 minutes, not that i saw it for that long with all and sundry wanting to use our scopes. 2018 Tick for Life and London.

We headed off for the Scaup.

One gloomy Scaup on 5.