I don’t know what surprised me most: the fact that a Little Bunting was unearthed wintering in Oxfordshire or that I took the decision to actually go and see it. Having no other pressing plans on Monday morning and a few hours free before work, I made the short trip to Over Norton. For some reason I assumed that a cold dull January morning at the beginning of the working week would dampen down interest in this bird. I was wrong – virtually everyone I knew was there! It was amazing how many people could free themselves up at short notice if required. As such, it was a much more sociable and pleasant experience than I had expected. The bird itself would periodically drop down to feed on seed on the path and looked fantastic in the ‘scope. It was too distant and too dark for my camera, though you can get an impression of the small size from comparison with a nearby Chaffinch… 
Those who were digiscoping got some fantastic footage – see here. Little Buntings have a cracking head pattern, two dark tramlines on the head separated by a greyish median crown stripe, lovely chestnut ear coverts and face and a neat white eye-ring. But strangely, the feature that most caught my eye was the breast pattern. When the bird was standing and alert, with neck stretched up, the malar patches and the horseshoe like patch on the central breast framed a pure white throat with a distinctive pattern:
Well, something like that. All in all, a very pleasant morning with some good people and a great local bird.