Snow Buntings are pretty little birds, pretty special and pretty rare in to the bargain. I wouldn't like to estimate how many spend the winter here in the UK but it may be just a few hundred, if even that..... who knows for certain? I last saw them in North Devon, at Sandymere on 26th October and then last December at Turf Lock on Exminster marsh. It was nothing short of a gale when I left in the early afternoon to go and see if I could find the one that had been seen for the last week or so on the shingle bank close to the mouth of the River Otter. When I got there it was desperately bad with driving icy rain and a wind that made your face numb with cold. I had deliberately gone when the weather was bad because I was hoping that this might create some atmosphere to the photographs and also, of course it would be a little quieter. It wasn't long before I caught sight of the little bird flying from the shingle. I saw approximately where it landed and walked in that direction. But it was really hard to find amongst the shingle. Eventually, after lots of searching, the rain had stopped by now, I found it feeding on grass seeds amongst the small clumps of sparse vegetation growing amongst the pebbles. It was incredibly camouflaged and even when just ten feet away you could lose sight of it. I took lots of pictures, trying to get at least one decent one, I think I did, but that's for you to judge.
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