Snow Bunting in Daily Mail

[roundwood123]

Sorry if this topic has already been mentioned,
Has anyone seen todays Daily Mail and the story on the Snow Bunting in a Cornwall Garden, the story and pictures are also available on-line, The bird is quite clearly a Chaffinch.

[NickCantle]

Hi roundwood, have you got a link? I can't find it on the Daily Mail Website

[Stewy]

This it??

The birdwatcher who travelled to Norway to spot a rare bird... then found one in her Cornwall garden | Mail Online

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by roundwood123

Sorry if this topic has already been mentioned,
Has anyone seen todays Daily Mail and the story on the Snow Bunting in a Cornwall Garden, the story and pictures are also available on-line, The bird is quite clearly a Chaffinch.

I didn't see it in the Mail, but saw the story in a Daily Express on the train + didn't mention it was fairly common on east coast- just mentioned north Scotland as UK range- which would be breeding birds.

There was a black and white photo which clearly wasn't a Snow bunting or indeed Chaffinch but from the monochrome looked like a male Red-headed Bunting in breeding plumage!!

[Dae]

Well using the link that stewy posted, it looks like a female chaffinch with some leucisim - doesn't look like a snow bunting to me at all.

[GuyF]

Originally Posted by Dae

Well using the link that stewy posted, it looks like a female chaffinch with some leucisim - doesn't look like a snow bunting to me at all.

I'd agree that the bird in the Daily Mail is definitely a Chaffinch!
Guy

[aeshna5]

Originally Posted by GuyF

I'd agree that the bird in the Daily Mail is definitely a Chaffinch!
Guy

Agree that it's a leucistic Chaffinch.

[tameblackbirds]

sorry to show my ignorance here but do chafinches have so much white on them? the Mail picture bird does appear to have a lot of white on its wings can someone advice as the ones in my garden never look like the one in the mail... confused

[KeenTeen17]

chaffinch definitely - just a bit of a freak though

[Oscar2006]

Chaffinch! (with bad hair!)

[Jason Green]

Yep, the one in the photo is 100% female chaffinch with slight leucism. But I suppose this doesn't have to mean she didn't see one - it was probably a photo researcher who may not have known what to look for when putting the pic online.

TB - it's partly leucistic - kind of partial albinoism

[KeenTeen17]

Originally Posted by Jason Green

Yep, the one in the photo is 100% female chaffinch with slight leucism. But I suppose this doesn't have to mean she didn't see one - it was probably a photo researcher who may not have known what to look for when putting the pic online.

TB - it's partly leucistic - kind of partial albinoism

got it in one!

[tameblackbirds]

ah now i know leucism (pigmentation)

[Jason Green]

Before I read through the article I assumed that the image shown was one taken by the observer - then read about her experience with these birds, so obviously not her innocent mistake (I've had plenty of them )

So do you think the researcher was going by her description of a bird with some white plumage, or something else?

[solus]

So it feeds with Chaffinches, looks like a Chaffinch with some aberrant white feathering and - if that photo is of the bird (and I suspect it may well be as it sure as anything isn't a "stock" Snow Bunting pic!) it IS a Chaffinch!

Oh - and there's not been a whisper on any of the rare bird forums/lines etc. about a garden-feeding Snow Bunting in Cornwall.

Poor lady is clearly NOT "an ornithologist", those bins look heavy, antique and possibly ex-naval (and possibly virtually unusable) and she went on an expensive organised trip to Norway where the leaders failed to point out any Snow Buntings? Oh dear! That reminds me of a chat I had a few years ago with an elderly lady who had been on a Norwegian coastal cruise and the "resident ornithologist" showed the "clients" a flock of Snow Buntings which most definitely were not! I can't recall what she said they actually were, but she knew he was misleading folk because that's what they all wanted to see!

Cornwall Lady would have done better to spend a much cheaper winter weekend on the North Norfolk Coast with one of the reliable bird guides....

[ChrisJB]

It is clearly a Chaffinch. What a silly story. Why didn't the lady just find some decent beach in North Norfolk in winter or go up on to the Cairngorm plateau if she wanted to see a Snow Bunting? Norway indeed.

Regards, Chris

[Jason Green]

Lets see if she signs up with WAB to talk about her sighting further...

[muscardinus]

I can hardly stop laughing - to think a national paper publishes such complete rubbish.

Mrs Davies is clearly a beginner and doesn't know what she's talking about - there's absolutely nothing wrong with that - but for this to be published without anyone on the paper noticing or checking with the RSPB press office or their own nature correspondent is simply staggering. Still, what do you expect from the Mail?

[shearwater66]

Quote 'Solus' 'Poor lady is clearly NOT "an ornithologist", those bins look heavy, antique and possibly ex-naval (and possibly virtually unusable)'


Ouch! They look like good old Zeiss Jena 10x50 Porro prisms.They were a great,cheap binocular in their day before the fashion for roof prisms.
Saw my 300th species in the UK with a pair of these...Alpine Swift.

[Queen bee]

I guess it happens to us all. See something flying, immediately go "Peregrine Falcon!", run around telling everyone about it... before looking in the bird guide and realising it was a pigeon. Just she went 1 step further... and told a newspaper.

[Gill Catton]

it happens all of the time, I don't bother believing newpaper stories anymore!

[Gaina]

Originally Posted by Queen bee

I guess it happens to us all. See something flying, immediately go "Peregrine Falcon!", run around telling everyone about it... before looking in the bird guide and realising it was a pigeon. Just she went 1 step further... and told a newspaper.

Haha, she might not have even told the newspaper if my friends' experience is anything to go by:

My friend used to live in a house that had previously been owned by the artist 'Banksy' and recently the Daily Mail decided to 'unmask' him so they did some snooping around, found out she had lived there....and then turned up on her doorstep of her current address uninvited!

Well, she had a quick chat with them along the lines of 'oh yes, I used to live there, no I have never met him' and off they went. She obviously hadn't given them what they wanted because we both laughed profusely to learn from the Daily Mail that she was practically in a relationship with him!

Nice to see that Fleet Street a won't let a silly little thing like the truth get in the way of a chance to shift newspapers.

[tameblackbirds]

not a chaffinch but does look like a bunting but colours are like spring colours coming in I'm not sure but someone wil put us right shortly