STOP PRESS!!! Possible GREY-NECKED BUNTING at Blakeney!!!

Just come up on the RBA pager, Noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!

The supposed Ortolan Bunting that was found at Blakeney Freshes which was seen at 5.30pm and phoned out late Monday evening, was possibly a Grey-necked Bunting! All correspondence about this bird from the finder went through BIRDGUIDES.

RBA Pager reads 'possible Grey-necked Bunting male reported on Monday Blakeney Freshmarsh NT near sluice along foopath north of Blakeney Manor Hotel at 5.30pm but no sign on Tuesday (probably not Ortolan Bunting)'

People need to get out there and search, it could still be there somewhere! Done my bit this week, arriving at 4.20am on Tuesday before work!!! (still recovering from that!)

LGRE tweeted last night "This is a pretty remarkable date for an Ortolan - could it be a Grey-necked or Cretzschmars? and then tweeted BirdingNorfolk and myself: "Top Lady - thx to Penny and DJH for checking this sighting out. We will NEVER know the answer but I fear we lost a major record here - perhaps it will relocate to Spurn, Holy Island or Fair Isle!"

I REALLY hope birders keeping looking for this bird, it could have simply re-located within a few hundred yards or a few miles away. Keep looking PLEASE!

I have just contacted BIRDGUIDES this evening to ask why the report has changed from Ortolan Bunting to 'possible' Grey-necked Bunting' – will post reply when I get one.

BIRDGUIDES replied and explained that they had tweeted this afternoon saying: "Finder of Norfolk 'Ortolan' has just told us he didn't consider Grey-necked at the time and has now said there was a strong possibility it was."

10.53pm – Josh Jones, Bird News Manager at BIRDGUIDES has just posted the following further update on Birdforum HERE

Just for interest/pictures etc there was a Grey-necked Bunting in Heligoland on 10th June this year and the account is HERE

Maybe James McCallum will find it on Blakeney Point for us!!!