Like many seaside resorts, Hayling Island has an air of desolation in the off-season. The beaches are all but deserted, the light is pale and milky, and the screams of children at the funfair have been replaced with the whistles and jumbled warbling of starlings gathering on the seafront rooftops. Perhaps that’s why one of the world’s most northerly recorded passerine species feels at home wintering on our shores.
The snow bunting is a scarce breeding species in the UK, with fewer than 100 pairs confined to Scotland’s highest peaks. During winter they move down to the ski centre carparks to forage for picnic crumbs, but rarely travel further afield. However, autumn brings 10,000 to 15,000 migrants to the UK from their breeding grounds in Iceland and Fennoscandia. These birds are infrequently found inland. Instead, they gravitate to shingle and sandy shorelines, salt marshes and coastal grazing. Favouring Scotland and eastern England, they are still quite a rarity here on the south coast, so the arrival of a lone bird on the spit of land adjacent to Sandy Point nature reserve caused some excitement.
