Finders in the field: Little Bustard, Dorset, November 2014
by Mike Morse
On the 30th October Alan Barrett and I had a Great Bustard fly through our patch at West Bexington, Dorset. We had very mixed emotions with the bird....initial excitement when it was picked up, enjoyment of the bird itself and then disappointment in the realisation that, despite the lack of wing tags, we knew what its origins were.
Fast forward to the morning of 18th November when, after a cursory visit to the nature reserve, we picked up a bird flying along the beach with a very odd flight action.
A bustard was not what sprung to mind, but as the bird banked briefly it displayed its upper wing and a bustard was clearly what it was. I managed to fire off a couple of record shots and thought that was that, but the bird had other ideas and cut in over the beach and dropped into a field between us and the car park. We approached the area cautiously knowing just how flighty bustards can be, but with the odd flight action momentarily forgotten, expecting to see a Great Bustard on the deck. Alarm bells started ringing as soon as we set eyes on the bird. It was obviously smaller than it had looked in flight and was short-necked, delicate looking with a dainty bill; and what about that flight action…..It can’t be a Little Bustard can it?
I hadn’t seen Little Bustard since the Lizard bird in ’96, Alan not since a trip to southern France in the early 80’s so it was a huge call for us and we wanted to get it right. Despite it looking the part we wanted to make sure we could fully eliminate Great Bustard, or any other bustard for that matter. We were aware that larger bustards took a number of years to mature, but how small could they get, not this small surely? And not this well-marked on the breast? Unexpectedly the bird then made a short flight away from us.
It then flew again, low northwest and slightly inland and we lost it behind some low trees. We took the opportunity to dash back to the car for a field guide. After a perusal of the bustard plates and a quick phone call to Stuart Piner at Rare Bird Alert, it became obvious that there was nothing else it could be…..we had a Little Bustard on the patch. We sent out messages to local birders whilst RBA paged it out and we returned to the fields we thought the bird had flown to.
We have access to all farmland within our recording area and between us and visiting birders checking elsewhere, we made a fairly thorough search of the area. However surprisingly, given how low it was flying, there was no sign of it. We widened the search, checking as far as Cogden and even east of the car park, but without success. The chances were that the bird was still around, but hunkered down in one of the larger fields with long grass. Only time will tell if we see it again.
Mike Morse
19 November 2014
From the Archive: Little Bustard in Britain and Ireland
There are over 200 accepted records but with only 10 since 1975 Little Bustard remains a seriously top find.
Dorset has had one previous record, at Coward’s Marsh, Christchurch from Dec 30th 1987 to Jan 5th 1988. In October 1996 a twitchable four day bird found on the Lizard in Cornwall proved very popular.
Apart from three in Suffolk in December 1987 all other recent records have been off the mainland, on Orkney, Shetland and the Isles of Scilly.
