Not A Little Brown Job But A Big Brown Jangler

After an appointment with a surveyor at my mother's property, I went to St Peter's On The Wall at Bradwell On Sea. I couldn't go straight to visit my mother at the care home as they prefer us not to visit at lunchtime.

I sat in the car in the rain and watched a whitethroat darting about in the hedge. The rain turned to drizzle so I decided to go for a walk. I could soon hear a very weird, jingling-jangling bird song. I looked up and there was a bird I have never seen before. It looked like a finch on steroids. It was quite fearless.

I discovered that a marriage blessing was about to take place in the ancient chapel. I got chatting to one of the guests, tried to reproduce the bird's song to him and asked if it was OK to take pics.

Just before the bride arrived the son of the man came running out and told me that the bird I'd seen is a corn bunting and asking me to keep an eye out for a red-footed falcon that had been seen locally recently.

(Birders call difficult to identify small brown birds little brown jobs or LBJs.)