News of a Pine Bunting on the Norfolk-Suffolk border got me feeling twitchy. It wasn't the easiest place to get to from Norwich without a car, but I could get within striking distance with a short train ride to Great Yarmouth and then a quick hitch down the A47. This worked out well and I was picked up by an old couple who were heading for Lowestoft. As luck would have it, they took pity on me and drove me to the twitch! Bonus!
I could see a group of about thirty birders in the distance, so soon crossed the fields to join the throng. The bird was with a big group of Yellowhammers feeding in a stubble field and occasionally flying up into a hedge. After thirty tense minutes, Lee Evans claimed the bird on a hedge; I could only see Yellowhammers. Other birders questioned his identification before I picked up the real Pine Bunting, a striking male, sitting on a wire fence a little further away. What a cracker! It was a little bit distant, but a few minutes later, the flock was flushed and they flew straight over us and landed on a much closer hedge. A very striking bird, most excellent! It dropped back into the stubble and vanished, but twenty minutes later the flock flew up on to the hedge again and the Pine Bunt was soon picked out.
As the light started to fade I decided I better get a wriggle on as it's not much fun hitching in the dark. Fortunately, a couple of birders picked me up and dropped me on the Norwich ring road, from where I had a half an hour walk home.
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