Lapland Bunting ...... again!

Many thanks to Dean Bolt for finding this fabulous bird at Sker today. It looks like a different bird to the one found recently, nearby on the Haul Road. So what's so attractive about these places to these birds? In a conversation which Mark (Hipkin) had with Martyn Hnatiuk at the last Lapland Bunting event, Martyn had said that the Lapland Buntings he had seen in the past were often found in places with lots of knotgrass. That was good observation. Today's bird was in 'knotgrass heaven' spending most of the time foraging in Equal-leaved Knotgrass (Polygonum arenastrum), of which there is a huge amount at Kenfig and Sker. It seemed to be consuming whole flowers as well as seeds. This is useful to know if you are searching for these birds on migration in our area - look for good patches of knotweed. The photo above and the one below show the bird and the knotgrass, but look at Mark's video in the following post to get a better appreciation of the foraging behaviour.