When I lived in Teddington, South West London in the 90's, I frequently visited Thursley Common as a change from Bushy Park and Staines Reservoir as birding options which were fairly limited in that part of the world. At the time, mainly for Summer Dartford Warblers and Redstarts, and wintering Great Grey Shrikes. It was also 10 years ago when I visited Thursley with Sally looking for a Great Grey Shrike, not only did I not see the shrike but I fell into a Thursley bog up to my armpits much to the amusement of some. Even though Thursley is now only 25 minutes drive from home, I rarely stray from Sussex across the Surrey border to go birding, however a few weeks ago a Little Bunting was found there and about 2 weeks ago a Rustic Bunting had joined it. Ordinarily, I may never have tried for the Little Bunting on it's own having seen 2 on Scilly in October, but it was worth trying for both, with the Rustic being much rarer.
I met Paul and Adam Bowley in the Moat car park and we walked out to the middle of the common around a small copse of recently burnt scrub, which provided thick cover. A small flock of Buntings were using the area mainly feeding on the long grass seeds. A small flock of birds comprised mostly 30 Reed Bunting, with a few Goldfinch and Meadow Pipit accompanying. It was about an hour before Adam called us to where he was standing as he had the Rustic Bunting in the top of a tree, we could see a flock of Buntings alight and fly up high and what appeared to be away from the area, but neither Paul or I had seen the bird before we arrived where Adam was standing, we waited about 15 minutes before the birds reappeared and the first sighting of the Rustic Bunting was at the top of a Birch, it quickly melted into the scrub with others and this was the pattern for the next hour or so we had several good sightings of the Rustic Bunting although none particularly close, but we had to wait a while before we had a relatively brief view of the Little Bunting.
Very happy with these sightings, we went to look for the Great Grey Shrike which had been seen earlier in the South Bog area. We saw a Dartford Warbler, Stonechat and 15 Crossbill, several Red Kite were in the area but no sign of the Great Grey Shrike. I will have to wait for one in Sussex this Winter.
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| Rustic Bunting |
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| Rustic Bunting |
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| Rustic Bunting |
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| Rustic Bunting |
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| Rustic Bunting |
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| Little Bunting |
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| Red Crossbill |
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