Having been told snow buntings were on Salthouse beach old nosey knickers here had to go and take a look. After almost breaking my neck climbing over heaped up pebbles, getting stuck in mud globs and swearing at the rain I just fell upon a group of the most gorgeously glorious little birds pecking away at the ground, twittering and chirping - gathered in groups of up to 30 and I could get so close I could almost touch them. Worth every aching moment.
Snow buntings are large buntings, with striking snowy plumage. Males in summer have all white heads and underparts contrasting with a black mantle and wing tips. Females are a more mottled above. In autumn and winter birds develop a sandy/buff wash to their plumage and males have more mottled upper parts. Globally they breed around the Arctic from Scandinavia to Alaska, Canada and Greenland and migrate south in winter. They are more widespread in winter in the north and east when residents are joined by continental birds.
