Yellow-browed Bunting –St. Agnes, Scillies, Cornwall, 19^th October 1994

Sketch of the Yellow-browed Bunting, attempting (and failing!) to capture the epic moment when it appeared at the top of a previously quivering stem of vegetation.

On Monday the 19th October 1994, towards the end of an excellent day of birding on St. Agnes and Gugh, including a mystery tacking Sylvia warbler, a Dusky Warbler (and a Little Bunting overhead there – or was it?), Peregrine, Firecrest, etc., Gilly and I found ourselves at The Parsonage, chatting to Ray Turley, whilst casually working our way through the numerous Chiffchaff.

We were wondering about which way to go back to the quay as it was 16:00. We opted to go back past the Great Pool, so that Gilly could see some more of the island.

So it was that we again bumped into Ray Turley along with some eight others (most of whom appeared to be by-standers, apart from John Wright, whose bird it ultimately was) trying to sort out an ‘odd’ Little Bunting which was in the small field they were looking into at a gate into opposite the Fruit Cage and near the old obs.. We joined them and almost immediately both Gilly and I were on it as it hopped about on the ground in front of a line of currant bushes within 10 m.

Views were consequently good as the bird fed on the bare ground amongst sparse weed cover. However, the bird was working away from us, although some crown stripes could be seen. These were steely white – it was not a Little Bunting.

Suddenly it obligingly went up on a dead stem and showed brilliantly. I, it seemed, initially was the only one on it and gorged myself on the view whilst trying to blurt out directions. Obvious were the bright yellow splodges on the supercilium. I got others onto it and then moved towards John Wright and said, “It’s got yellow on it! He immediately put the identity to it, and shouted, “Yellow-browed Bunting! It’s a Yellow-browed Bunting”. Ray Turley asked for it to be put out on the Citizen Band radio. Only then did we question the identity – could it be an American sparrow – such as White-throated Sparrow?

Within a minute, birders were descending, crashing into our backs, and I became more pre-occupied with crowd control. The bird, needless to say, was flushed. So were we. We left, convinced that we would be doing very well to get better views.

The lasting impression was the stunning head pattern as the whole bird was not clearly seen.

Only some considerable time later did it emerge that Calum Scott, Stuart Rivers and Mark Oksien (and other Scottish based birders?) had been staying very close by and had spent a couple of days or so trying to sort out the mystery bunting they kept on seeing. Small world stuff, as I know each of them well, for instance, having worked and socialised with Calum, served on the Isle of May Bird Observatory Trust Committee with Mark and Stuart, and visited both Barra and the Isle of May with them in various instances. And yes, all of this was a long time before they 'discovered' Barra.

Yellow-browed Bunting, St Agnes, Scilly, October 1994 (photograph credited to Rob Wilson).