Male Cirl Bunting (Emberiza cirlus) Photo by Paco Gómez from Castellón, Spainderivative work: Bogbumper (talk) – Cirl_bunting.jpg, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10654353

Dear Readers, you might remember a recent Red List post about the Cirl Bunting  in which I mentioned that although it was a conservation success story, it wasn’t found outside the West Country at the moment. Well, much to my surprise, one was found on 18th March at Barnard Castle in Durham, several hundred miles north of its usual homeground.

You might remember that Barnard Castle was visited by Dominic Cummings, special advisor to Boris Johnson, during the first lockdown, when the rest of us were confined to quarters. He was said to be visiting the area for ‘an eye test’. Fortunately there’s no question about this ornithological observation as there is photographic evidence for any sceptical folk. The question is, what was the bird doing there?

There is some discussion about whether the bird originated in mainland Europe – historically the south of England was the northern-most range of this little bird, but with climate change it could well be that it’s moving north. Only time will tell if this was a one-off, with a bird maybe blown off course by our recent poor weather, or a particularly adventurous bird heading north in search of pastures new. What it does suggest is that there is great value in just birding a particular local spot, because you honestly never know what’s going to turn up.