February 1 2026. Lincoln County, Ontario. January has laid a thick layer of snow and firmed it into place with weeks of deep cold; not birding weather, not for me anyway. But flipping the calendar today was a step in the right direction. February brings more sunshine than we’ve seen since the radiance of fall and soon will come the small heart-lift you get from sitting into a sun-warmed car. I thought finding some Snow Buntings would make a nice start to the month so, with valuable information from a friend, we made our way to a new-to-me corner of the province.
Snow Buntings favour open landscapes, the sort of windswept winter farmland that possibly looks very much like the barrens of Greenland or the Arctic where the buntings breed. At this time of year, they gather in loose flocks and scavenge bare roadsides for weed seeds, spilt grain and even insects immobilized by the cold.
We soon found several flocks of Snow Buntings, many Horned Larks and with the odd Lapland Longspur, swirling and tumbling in flight rather like winter squalls. Nice to see, but I’ve had more satisfying bunting days; perhaps it was the glare of reflected sun, or perhaps their flightiness with our approach that spoiled it, I’ve done better.
Just four years ago I enjoyed large flocks of Snow Buntings who were feeding along the margins of a wide trail that bisected a large field and is popular with dog-walkers. As people and dogs approached, the flocks lifted, swirled around and soon regrouped, landing to resume feeding. Sometimes they were too close to another approaching threat and so, repeat.
More recently, October 2022, I was astonished to find a handful of Snow Buntings on the shoreline of Kattegat, the strait between Denmark and Sweden. They had me baffled for a while, the context was all wrong, but then the penny dropped, Snow Buntings are circumpolar in distribution. Just where these Danish buntings came from and were heading to, I can only speculate, Lapland and Poland maybe.
And I have written before about winter days spent helping to band Snow Buntings. Icy days with at least one episode of frostbite, but worth it to enjoy birds that really are cute.
Satisfying doesn’t always happen with birds; they were nevertheless my Birds of the Day.