Cirl Buntings in Devon

Cirl Buntings have had a good breeding season it seems.  Dave Land and I went to look for them  today, we live very close to known sites here in Devon where you can almost guarantee to find them in the winter.  The obvious place is Broadsands in Torbay where a winter flock is fed daily to ensure that they have a safe winter.  If you are visiting from out of the area you will get your best views of them here and that is almost for certain. There are other areas such as Prawle and Powderham Marsh near Exminster.  Dave and I were very lucky today and we saw and photographed a flock numbering 50, or perhaps even more.  A thoroughly nice bird, they are very attractive and photogenic and always good to photograph because of their relative rarity, (only around 850 pairs in the entire UK and all confined to a small area here in the South West).  You can't mistake a male but the females are rather like a female Reed Bunting.  I am told that birds will move as much as 2 kilometres to join a flock but one of the problems that this species faces is  a reluctance to move large distances.  This  means that the species does not colonise, or re-colonise a suitable new habitat and area very quickly.