Buntings

Lapland Bunting (Lapland Longspur) Calcarius lapponicus

A regular winter visitor to the Yorkshire coast, albeit in varying numbers, the Lapland Bunting is an uncommon straggler inland. The Humber waterfront of the Hull area has never really proved as attractive to 'Lap Bunts' as the regular, truly coastal, sites of Barmston, Spurn or Filey and there are just three records from the Saltend and Paull area which, on the face of it, would appear to be the most likely place for them around Hull. The first were two birds at Paull on 13th October 1985, a typical date for passage migrants, and another was there on 5th January 1986. What was conceivably the same bird had flown south over Saltend Marsh just four days earlier. In December 1987 B. Richards discovered a small flock on fields east of North Bransholme, with at least five on 9th, two on 10th and then again on 22nd. Surprisingly, another three were back there on 11th March 1988 with two the next day and a male again on 10th April, last being seen on 12th. I am rather envious of Richards for these sightings, for I watched these same fields for the next 10 years and never saw a single Lapland Bunting in all that time!


Snow Bunting Plectrophenax nivalis

Snow Bunting are very pretty little birds that breed among the boulders of alpine slopes and the tundra of the far north of Europe, with a small population in Scotland. It is in winter when flocks arrive in East Yorkshire to flutter over the coastal fields like flurries of snow. Only small numbers visit the Hull area, however, and not in every year. The first record also concerns the largest flock seen in the area, when 40 were near Hedon on 16th November 1963. Boylan (1967) mentions a small party flying west at the East Hull waterfront some time between 1960 and 1966 but gives no further details, while four flew west on the West Hull foreshore on 14th January 1968. There were no records from the 1970s, although 15 flew northwest over the Holderness Drain at North Bransholme on 15th December 1980. There were six sightings from the area around Saltend and the eastern docks between 1984 and 1986, all singles, with the earliest on 28th October, three in November and one in December and February with the latest 28th March. All were flyovers heading north or west, except for the March bird, in 1986, which was a full adult male feeding in the Earles Road car park, off Hedon Road. Another was on the ground at Alexandra Dock on 21st February 1989. A party of six Snow Buntings were feeding on weedy ground near the Makro shopping centre at Hessle on 22nd February 1991, with a single bird at Saltend on 19th February 1998.

The best time for finding Snow Buntings in the Hull area would appear to be between late October and late March, with the peak months being November and February. The windswept Humber shoreline, particularly the Saltend area, offers the best chance of seeing a flyover bird or two, while feeding birds may turn up further inland on stubbles or weedy expanses.


Yellowhammer Emberiza citrinella

An irregular visitor to large suburban gardens in Hull at the beginning of the 20th Century, the Yellowhammer was a very common bird of open country and agricultural land throughout the East Riding. Boylan (1967) wrote that the Yellowhammer was a regular but uncommon breeding bird in 1960s Hull, being confined to the city outskirts but commonly frequenting grain depots at King George Dock during winter. Breeding was reported from Little Switzerland, near Hessle, in 1967 at least and nesting was also occurring at Saltend during the mid 1980s, with a favoured site being the hay meadow next to the railway line at Corner Farm. Bonavia (1990) considered the Yellowhammer to be a common breeding and wintering bird in farmland and open country around Cottingham during the 1980s and I regularly counted up to five singing males between North Bransholme and the Holderness Drain during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Up to four pairs were breeding on Swine Bank, Willerby Carrs, in 1996 but by 2001 I could only locate three pairs on territory at North Bransholme, this being in line with the national downturn in fortunes for British Yellowhammers.

North Bransholme may be the only breeding site for Yellowhammers left in Hull, as no other nesting birds have been reported within the city boundary for many years. Scattered pairs still breed in adjoining parts of the East Riding, particularly around Paull, Wawne and Skidby, but in nothing like the numbers of just a few short decades ago. The Yellowhammer has always been more numerous and widespread in the Hull area during autumn passage and winter. Up to 20 frequented the Saltend area during the latter part the year during the 1980s, with a site record of 60 in January 1985, while the usual autumn count of 15 at North Bransholme was inflated to 33 in mid December 1992. The 1996 peak count in the Priory Road area was 10 at Wood Farm in late January, while Paull held an encouraging flock of 60 in February 1999. On this basis it is still possible to locate a small flock of Yellowhammers in likely winter habitats, such as stubble fields or wasteland, but as a breeding bird they are still declining with alarming persistence.


Reed Bunting Emberiza schoeniclus

The first specific mention of the Reed Bunting in the Hull area concerns a late nest containing five eggs at Hedon on 25th August 1900. Boylan (1967) referred to the Reed Bunting as a regular but uncommon breeding bird in 1960s Hull, being confined to the drains and dykes during the breeding season. They were noted to be occasional winter visitors around Kirk Ella in the mid 1970s and were found to breed at Snuff Mill Lane and Willerby Carrs, between Cottingham and Hull, during the 1980s. Bonavia (1990), however, considered them to be rather uncommon around Cottingham and northwest Hull.

A healthy population bred at Saltend Marsh, between King George Dock and the Saltend chemical plant, during the mid 1980s, with 17 pairs there in 1984 and a further four at Victoria Dock. Most of the suitable habitat at both of these places is now gone. Between five and eight pairs were breeding on the marshy fields and drain banks between North Bransholme and the Holderness Drain in the late 1980s and early 1990s, with a similar number still doing so. Up to four pairs nested along Swine Bank ditch, on Willerby Carrs, in 1996. Other recent breeding records have come from the rough land on southwest Hull's Priory Sidings (five territorial males in 1998 and one in 1999), the Queen Elizabeth Dock area (breeding in 1998 and three territorial males in 1999), Anlaby Common (one pair in 1999) and also the Bransholme Sewage Works and surrounding area. Scattered pairs of Reed Buntings are still likely to breeding in several other outlying parts of the Hull area, along reedy dykes and hollows, bushy and overgrown drain banks and along the northern stretches of the River Hull. They are nowhere very common, however, and are tied to the ever-decreasing wet and boggy habitats. Geoff Dobbs, the respected local birdwatcher and co-founder of the Hull Valley Wildlife Group, considers the Reed Bunting to be threatened within the city of Hull due to loss of habitat and this is undoubtedly true. The number and distribution of Reed Buntings in the Hull area increases during late summer and autumn as local birds roam and passage migrants pass through. Up to 25 were occasionally found to the east of North Bransholme during the early 1990s, with a site record of 40 on 9th October 1993, while 20 were at Saltend in October 1984. Reed Buntings often become harder to find during the winter months as most local birds move out, but individuals or small flocks can occasionally be found on the breeding grounds or weedy areas and stubble fields. Winter weather may well bring Reed Buntings to you, however, as odd ones and twos are increasingly turning up on suburban bird tables to take seed and grain. One visited my North Bransholme garden during a period of snow cover one winter in the early 1990s and another recently turned up again in the early months of 2001. Gardens in Lapwing Close (East Hull), meanwhile, were visited by a couple of birds in February 1998.


Red-headed Bunting Emberiza bruniceps

On 16th September 1989 R. Eades saw a male Red-headed Bunting land on a ship in the Humber and remain aboard until the ship docked at Hull. The bird then flew off, never to be seen again. Red-headed Buntings breed across central Asia and winter in India but, while they have been recorded in East Yorkshire on several occasions, the large trade in wild-caught birds of this species means that all occurrences, and particularly those of the colourful adult males, are treated with suspicion. It is, however, almost certain that some of the birds seen in Britain are true vagrants and the credentials for this individual are quite good. Firstly, the bird first appeared on the east coast, as many rare migrants do, and the time of year is just about right for an eastern vagrant. In addition, a second Red-headed Bunting came ashore at Filey on the very same day. The Filey bird, also a male, could theoretically have arrived from Asia on the same airstream as the Hull bird. Sadly, and some would argue more likely, the possibility of both birds escaping from the large bird markets in Holland cannot be ruled out.


Corn Bunting Miliaria calandra

Reports in The Naturalist in 1922 stated that the Corn Bunting was absent west of Hull and was decreasing in the areas where it persisted, the implication being that Corn Buntings were present in the Hull area at that time. Boylan (1967) knew of only one breeding locality in Hull during the 1960s, this being patronised only irregularly. A respectable 20 were at the Bransholme Sewage Works in January 1978 and Bonavia (1990) considered it to be a common and widespread breeding bird in the open country around Cottingham and northwest Hull during the 1980s. James (1985) reported that the Corn Bunting was rare around Saltend during the mid 1980s, with just two records of wandering birds in 1985, despite being a common breeder on farmland around Paull and Hedon. A flock of 28 at High Bransholme Farm, east of Bransholme, in late April 1989 gave a rough idea of the breeding population in that area back then, but the number of singing males gradually dwindled throughout the early 1990s to just two by 1994. The main breeding sites in this area were in fields between Castle Hill Farm, north of Sutton, and Fairholme Farm, northeast of North Bransholme, including several birds within the Hull city boundary. Corn Buntings were rarely heard there after that, but a flock of seven in mid March 1997 was more encouraging. Breeding seems to be more common around Wawne, however, particularly in the fields along the road up to Meaux and Routh, and I have often heard males singing around Wawne Grange and Wawne Common Farms.

The Corn Bunting was once a common and characteristic bird of the waving crop fields and scrawny hedgerows that fringe many parts of Hull but if any still nest within the city boundary then they are surely among the last. They are still thinly distributed in adjoining areas of the East Riding but are declining fast, as the British Corn Bunting population has plummeted over the last few decades and this was mirrored in our area. As ever, changing farming practices are thought to be at the heart of it, with autumn sowing, improved crop spraying and 'tidying up' robbing farmland birds of the summer insects and winter stubbles and weed seeds that they depend upon.