Snow Bunting photographed at Fort le Crocq on 24/10/2008 Photo: © Paul Hillion (visit site)

Snow Buntings breed in the Arctic/Alpine zone and migrate south in winter to more temperate areas. Birds from at least three different breeding areas winter in western Europe. These include the race P. n. nivalis which breeds in Greenland and Siberia and P. n. insulae which breeds in Iceland. Icelandic birds are distinguishable in the field, being much darker and having less white in the wing. Icelandic males also have a dark rump compared with the white/orange rumps of nivalis males. Both subspecies occur in the UK, although the majority of birds in the UK appear to be Icelandic and most of these are female, as the males tend to spend the winter in Iceland.

The Bailiwick is at the extreme southern range of the Snow Bunting's wintering range and it has never held large numbers of this species for any length of time. Smith records it as 'probably a regular autumnal visitant, remaining on into winter.' When Smith was in Guernsey in November 1875 he saw a few flocks of Snow Buntings and 'one - a young bird of the year - which had been killed by a boy with a catapult, was brought into Couch's Shop about the same time...' It seems that if birds were not threatened by men with guns, they had to face other dangers from small boys!

As in Smith's day, small numbers are now recorded each autumn and winter on Guernsey and Herm and they are a regular migrant and winter visitor in Alderney but scarce in Sark. In the period under review, Snow Buntings have been recorded in Guernsey in all but one year (1993). The number of birds recorded varies widely between years and anything between 0 and 100 records are received. Snow Buntings are extremely mobile and it is inevitable that some of these involve the same birds.

Snow Buntings mostly arrive in the Bailiwick during October, although there have been a few records in September. Autumn passage peaks at the end of October and the number of birds recorded in the Bailiwick declines to the end of December. The number of birds then picks up again in January and February and presumably involves birds, which wintered further south, moving through the islands.

By the second week of March the flocks of birds have disappeared from the island but a few stragglers, often coming into summer plumage, are often seen in March and up to the end of April. Records in May are exceptional but a male in breeding plumage was seen on Lihou on 14 May 1972, one, again on Lihou, on 9 May 1976 and a male was seen in Herm in early May 1989 and a female at L'Ancresse on 14 May 1989.

There is no real trend in the number of birds recorded each year, there is perhaps some cyclical pattern to numbers. Being at the southern edge of the range it is likely that small changes in population size will have a larger impact on the numbers of birds wintering in Guernsey. The two races are separable in the field but definitely in the hand and of the handful of birds caught and raced all showed characteristics of the nivalis race. Whether these were Greenland or Scandinavian birds is not known, although both do winter in Britain.

The west coast is the key area for Snow Buntings and they are mostly found on the beaches and spend much time picking in the vraic along the tide line for sand hoppers and seeds. If a flock stays to winter, most records come from Vazon northwards to Jaonneuse with many records from Pulias, Grandes Rocques, Les Amarreurs, Chouet and Pecqueries. However, records from further south are not unknown, especially from the Shingle Bank and Belle Greve Bay. Birds are mostly recorded in singles or pairs but flocks of 10-20 birds are recorded in some winters.