Soil Hill

  The days of regularly wintering Snow Buntings on Soil Hill are now a distant memory, even as little as 10 years ago. So it was very nice to find this very attractive male feeding away on the North Slope this morning, giving excellent close-range views, especially considering the other two birds I have personally found here were both flyovers.

  I was walking down the North Slope track when I heard a distinctive ‘pew’ call, which did indeed recall a Snow Bunting, but with just one note I figured it could have been any number of species. After a few seconds, however, I then heard a distinctive trill which can only have been a limited number of species, and my heartrate began to increase. But after a wait of around 10 minutes, it was clear that I had not heard enough to be sure, and that if it had been a Snow Bunting, it must have been a flyover which was already long gone, so I continued my walk, a little disappointed.

  Fortunately I wasn’t disappointed for long, as about twenty metres further down the slope I flushed the bird from the path in front of me. Panic ensued as I grabbed the camera for some kind of record shot, but fortunately the bird returned to the path quite quickly and carried on feeding. It stayed here for a short time, before deciding it had seen enough of the Hills lush pastures and flew off south. Although it looked to be dropping in, an hours search failed to refind it, despite the efforts of myself, DJS, JJL and DP.

  This is my 100^th species for Soil Hill in 2023, a landmark I have only previously reached in 2020 and in 2022, so not bad going at all. And this is certainly one of the Hill highlights this year, an excellent species to see. 

-Snow Bunting

Species List:
Soil Hill: Canada Goose, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Stock Dove, Common Wood Pigeon, Northern Lapwing, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, European Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Eurasian Sparrowhawk, Western Barn Owl, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Common Kestrel, Eurasian Magpie, Western Jackdaw, Rook, Carrion Crow, Goldcrest, Eurasian Wren, Common Starling, Mistle Thrush, Common Blackbird, European Robin, European Stonechat, Dunnock, Meadow Pipit, Eurasian Chaffinch, Eurasian Bullfinch, Lesser Redpoll, European Goldfinch, Snow Bunting,