buntings

Now, for all I know, I've walked past dozens of painted buntings and northern parulas over the years and missed them or paid them no close attention because I thought I was looking at sparrows.

Lance Mannion: 2009

Now, for all I know, I've walked past dozens of painted buntings and northern parulas over the years and missed them or paid them no close attention because I thought I was looking at sparrows.

Notes from the field: Vultures in the neighborhood 2009

Numbers of brown hares have declined across Britain by almost 80% in the last 60 years, but they are thriving – as are the corn buntings and skylarks – in the Downs' carefully managed patchwork mix of fields.

Country diary: South Downs, West Sussex 2011

In many ways I find the plumage of the reed buntings in our garden more expressive of this peculiar turn of season.

Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk 2011

I rise and walk on up the hill to the pretty, tinkling call of corn buntings.

Country diary: South Downs, West Sussex 2011

And it is exactly through a voyage to water, to find a final resting place for Tanya -- Miron's beloved, and very recently deceased younger wife -- that this unusual trio comes together in Silent Souls, completed by the photographer Aist who brings along his own Greek chorus of sorts in the form of two buntings.

E. Nina Rothe: Aleksei Fedorchenko's Silent Souls: Connecting Tenderness, Nostalgia and Love E. Nina Rothe 2011

They were at once confidently identified by my companions: chaffinches, reed buntings and yellowhammers but no tree sparrows, although between 15 and 25 are now resident in this wetland, brought back by the establishment of the Cary Marsh nature reserve.

Country diary: Cary Marsh, Somerset 2011

Shrubs and trees native to the area have been planted to create woodland, and a big field has been sown with crops that provide the winter forage that attracts the seed eaters: tree sparrows, yellowhammers and reed buntings among them.

Country diary: Cary Marsh, Somerset 2011

And it is exactly through a voyage to water, to find a final resting place for Tanya -- Miron's beloved, and very recently deceased younger wife -- that this unusual trio comes together in Silent Souls, completed by the photographer Aist who brings along his own Greek chorus of sorts in the form of two buntings.

E. Nina Rothe: Aleksei Fedorchenko's Silent Souls: Connecting Tenderness, Nostalgia and Love E. Nina Rothe 2011

Reed buntings are dull sparrow-like brown birds of wet places and marsh that barely intrude upon our collective conscious.

Country diary: Claxton, Norfolk 2011