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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KenM" data-source="post: 1777666" data-attributes="member: 57880">On the March 25th, I was scanning a marsh area near Telford, Shropshire. When I picked up this 'odd' looking 1st Summer transient male Reed Bunting.I was viewing it from c180-200m through a pair of 8x20's as exceptional a glass as they are, they were being somewhat out-gunned over that distance. However the bird in question was feeding on a dry area of marsh with several adult male Reed Bunts. Being the 'closest' to me, it appeared smaller,with a sandy pale grounding to the upperparts, showing a 'short' rufous brown crown abutting dark ear coverts, no visible super. with a longer tail/shorter body impression. Buffy wash to the breast, clean white underparts and no apparent streaking. The pale rump extended half way up the back, and pale braces were observed at certain angles, light dependent. Obviously alarm bells were ringing! but I had to leave for home..c160 miles away. I duly contacted several local interested parties and left it there! In order to maintain my near monopoly on 'four letter word' grabs I had to 'fully digitalise' my camcorder to get these images..as woeful as they are, I think they give a fair impression of what I saw through the binoculars. Apart from PRBunt. there are many races of Reed Bunting, thus if anybody has any experience of transient males, objective comments would be appreciated.</blockquote>