Snow Buntings at Godrevy

Four Snow Buntings were found last week in and around the Godrevy head area. As always, this species is very confiding and also very photogenic.  Snow Bunting is a regular passage migrant and winter visitor in small numbers and is usually found on favourite coastal sites.

Summer plumage Snow and Lapland Buntings

Below are four images of some stunning summer plumage Lapland Buntings and female Snow Bunting.  This is the first time I've seen these species in this plumage.  The male Lapland Bunting is handsome for sure, but the Snow Bunts take some beating as well.  These were taken at Nesseby, Varanger.  I've also put a link to Martin Garner's blog, who was also on the same trip as me to Arctic Norway.  Martin was live-updating his blog via iPhone. Link is HERE 

Male Snow Bunting

This stunning male Snow Bunting was taken this morning outside our B&B.  Another 200 were present as they fed in the snow covered field beside the house.  They have all descended to lower ground to escape the thick layer of snow on the high tundra.

Snow Bunting at the Folly, Marazion

This little stunner performed well this afternoon among the dog walkers, parked cars and sunday afternoon walkers.  Snow Buntings are so tame and this bird simply ignored everything going on around.

First year Snow Bunting at Newlyn, Cornwall

This morning's light was stunningly clear and I was able to take some nicely focussed images of this very obliging Snow Bunting at Sandy Cove.  I'm assuming that given the amount of black in the wing feathers, this is a young male.

The images were taken with the 300mm F/2.8 VR and 1.4x teleconverter.  Tripod mounted.

Snow Bunting at St Gothian Sands NR

Spring feels like it has arrived today. A warm sunny day with a strong westerly breeze meant that light levels were very high. So high that my eye was on the exposure meter all day. In addition to this lovely Snow Bunting, I also managed to see my first Sand Martin of the year at Marazion Marsh. Sadly no photos though, as it barely stayed for a minute. The Snow Bunting image below was difficult as it was constantly feeding and fidgeting. The low evening light at 6pm was intense and there was a lot of shadow, so some of my images were burnt out, though I managed to save these two.

EXIF Detail: EV -0.3, WB Auto, Focal Length 850mm, Aperture F/8, ISO400, Camera set to Aperture Priority.