Snow Buntings at Stone Point

5th February 2023

There have been a few reports recently of up to 13 Snow Buntings in the Stone Point area of The Naze so time for a walk along the beach to try our luck. Not too surprisingly the greensward was fairly quiet at this time of year with just a handful of Meadow Pipits wafting around and landing on the bushes for their photo to be taken.

Further down on the sea wall a Redshank was feeding on the small saline lagoon by the John Weston Reserve. It is quite unusual to see waders here because of the proximity of the lagoon to the raised footpath.

Now on to the beach and the only passerines on view were this Linnet and a multitude of Sky Larks. They say that Sky Larks are in decline, presumably based on the results of the Breeding Bird Survey, but wherever I go during the winter months they are present in good numbers.

Wader numbers were well down compared to what we are used to at high tide with just a single Oystercatcher and a handul of Ringed Plovers in the sand dunes compared to the usual flocks of 50+.

Sanderling numbers were also low with just a half a dozen birds compared to the usual 50+.

Even so Sanderlings are a joy to photograph and this shot shows that when they move very fast they are actually running on air.

On the lagoon at Stone Point the high tide roost consisted of almost entirely Dunlin with 1000+ birds present and a handful of Grey Plovers. They had obviously fed well and were taking advantage of the high tide to catch up on some sleep.

And as is often the case they were easily spooked for no obvious reason.

But then some white movement at the far end of the sand dunes caught our attention and closer inspection revealed these were not Ringed Plovers but Snow Buntings, just three birds of the 13 that had been reported recently. They were fairly distant, probably a good 40 yards away, but then flew towards us and landed just 20 yards away. They were feeding so intently we were eventually just eight yards away.

WOW!!! What a fabulous end to the morning, and now on to Frinton for some Purple Sandpipers.