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Message: <blockquote data-quote="JWN Andrewes" data-source="post: 3558676" data-attributes="member: 7131">April 29th: part IIA few years ago, on an unassuming stretch of the A5 between Shrewsbury and Oswestry, we were stuck in traffic. Roadworks, with traffic lights, left us stationary on a sunny day, windows open, and while we sat and waited a familiar little jangle snuck its way into my consciousness; there was a Corn Bunting singing somewhere. I craned round to look behind us, and sure enough there he was, singing from a tree top, and then the lights changed, and we were moving. The boys were in he car at the time, but this predated their interest in birding, and I’ve been meaning to check back and look for the Buntings again sometime, but whenever passing that way it just wasn’t convenient. Today, on the way home from Shrewsbury on a sunny spring morning the timing couldn’t have been better, so when we reached the spot we turned off down a country road (stereo off and windows open to listen out), pulled over onto a convenient verge, and began our search. Plenty of voices ringing out, Chaffinch, Wren, Skylark, Whitethroat. But no Corn Bunts. A couple of likely looking suspects pitched into the top of a distant oak though, but then bailed before I could deploy scope. Too bad. Couple of nice Wheatear in an adjacent sheep field, and then more action over in the oak, half a dozen birds alighted and this time stuck. Up scope and… bingo. All that remained, as more birds arrived, and we started to hear the occasional burst of song, was to reposition for better views. In the end I reckon there must have been at least a dozen Corn Buntings in the tree’s crown (and I could well believe twice that), scoffing on oak flowers by the look of it. Hugely gratified that the stop paid off, in a way that far exceeded my hopes of perhaps finding perhaps one or two birds singing from wires or tree tops. An afternoon playing in a park near home was improved by our first Swifts of the year, bringing the year list to 162 and the day’s birding to a close.</blockquote>

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