Confetti fields to Slimbridge Little Bustard

Little Bustard (John Fletcher)

 Little Bustard(Andrew Jordan)

Sunday surprise visit

Early arrivals before the masses arrived

Confetti fields under Bredon Hill

Confetti

Stunning array of colours

Pre-Slimbridge twitch

After a busy morning, Mrs D at Yoga & myself doing the patch, we headed over to the confetti fields under the shadow of Bredon Hill. After a relaxing walk admiring the blooms we headed into Evesham to pick up some lunch & a bit of shopping. Half way round Tesco my phone had an alert "Little Bustard Slimbridge". I can assure you there was no time for browsing as I kidnapped Mrs D for an afternoon twitch four junctions down the M5.

With a relatives hospital visit still on the agenda later in the afternoon, this was going to have be a rapid visit. After reaching middle point within the reserve, I some what under-estimated the length of the grass and if the bird was going to be visible. Sadly not, this could be interesting. As more and more birders arrived, ringing the cash registers at the visitor centre, the Little Bustard, a stonking male, raised his head and then got spooked by a crow causing it to take flight enabling me to get fantastic views before landing out of sight. With that I picked up my scope and I was off to the car park where I met Mr & Senior Mr Peplow. The 84 year made the long walk to middle point to see the bird which was fantastic & it was wonderful to hear the Slimbridge Range Rover kindly drove him back. A very classy touch indeed. 

Little Bustards are very rare in the UK, I have only seen them in Spain previously. Apart from a number of records in 2014/5 (only one twitchable in Yorkshire) the previous record looks to be 2002 on the Scillies. A super bird to add to the life list.