20th December 2014

Another early start this morning, a trip to Brean Down. We parked up on the coastal side, and walked across to the top of the NT trail at the mouth of the esturary. A few scans across the shingal ridge didn't produce the snow bunting, so we walked down a bit further, when 4 small birds flew up from on the ground and down onto the saltmarsh. Shortly after, they came back up onto the wire fence, and sure enough they were the 4 Twite. They gave very satisfying views for long periods of time.

After a while, quite a few birders had gathered around the area, and one who had seen the snow bunting a few days ago said that it spent most of its time further along the shingal, so we all headed out there. Things were looking rather hopeless, when the Snow Bunting suddenly flew up in front of us at the very far end of the ridge (typical!) It seemed not to be to bothered by our presence, and gave good photo opportunities.

We also had 2 Jack Snipe in flight over the saltmarsh. We headed back to the car at this point, and left after quickly checking the cove for the black redstart without finding it (though I doubt we were thorough enough)
Annoyed that we missed the lapland bunting by 10 minutes though!