BRITISH WILDLIFE: THE REEDS & THE LITTLE BUNTING

For two days in a row I visited the Walthamstow Wetlands. I was there yesterday.

Well what a day?!

The weather men got it wrong for the umpteenth time recently for London, no snow the other Thursday after they said it was. The day before this day it was supposed to rain around 3pm to 4pm and barely spat. This day was supposed to be partly sunny fro midday to 5pm with no rai at all! Take a wild guess at what happened?! It rained and transitioned from fairly heavy to light and the sun did come out .. eventually. Around the closing time of the place we were in which is 4pm.

Tens of millions on a weather computer a couple years back? Stop .. just stop.

Anyhoo we waited by the section which was said to have Reed Buntings and a Little Bunting among them. Got hatting to e nice bunch of chaps while there, one dedicated soul was a Scot who had come down from Warrington of all places.

Now I was convinced I had the Little Bunting on film and pictures a dozen times .. but ..

I was not familiar with what young and hen Reed Buntings looked like nor familiar with the same for the Little Bunting. A chestnut coloured face was all I had to go on.

I also still do not possess my birding lens, the 70-400mm Sony f4!

At the end someone pointed out the Little Bunting while it was close to us and feeding. I spotted what they were referring to and though 'oh .. I have filmed that several ties' and was happy. Well as it turns out it was not the Little Bunting and an immature male Reed Bunting.

After going through the videos and the photos I had managed to get one of each of the Little Bunting so was not a complete disaster. Nor did the Sony A99 II and its 70-2mm f2.8 and 1.4 Teleconverter get wet for nothing.