Spurn Point

It was a very Autumnal feeling about Spurn today. The wind blew steadily from the east, it was overcast and there were birds all over the place.

first stop was canal scrape to view the jack snipe that have taken up residence there. there were at last 4 there this morning along with lots of redwings and a few fieldfares. Next it was Sammy's Point-not much there in terms of rarities but again plenty of thrushes and quite a few goldcrests.

I then had a ride down to the point, again lots of thrushes and a very obliging kesterel. i went for some dinner at this point feeling somewhat disappointed at the lack of rare birds-that was soon to change. news of a great grey shrike crackled over the radio at post 41 so I headed off down there-never too close it gave some reasonable views before heading off to the north.There was also a short eared owl here.

Then back to the point where a long eared owl was showing well but distantly and at the same spot I had a fleeting view of a yellow browed warbler. i headed back up the road to have another look for the ggs but to no avail, however there was a nice merlin perched menacingly on the rocks waiting for some tired migrant.

I headed back up to canal scrape and the jack snipe were still showing well along with a ring ouzel and quite a few redwings, fieldfare and a single brambling.

Finally i called in at the crown and missed a yellow browed warbler.

All in all a pretty enjoyable day.

Pat Haven

I had another cracking session at pat haven this morning.

I got there before first light and set up in a new spot-it didn't take long for the first greenshank to appear, then it was joined by a redshank and a couple more greenshanks. Then I heard an unusual call coming from behind and within seconds a cracking spotted redshank landed on the lagoon in front of me. It flushed with the rest of the waders when a raptor went through, then settled back on the lagoon even closer.

It was a smaller tide than yesterday so I had longer and the small waders just kept coming-the whole area was covered in mainly dunlin with odd ringed plovers and the long staying curlew sandpipers.

hardly any bigger waders though, just one grey plover being notable.

Must be getting near to the end of the pat haven season but whilst the warm weather continues so does the good birds.

East Yorkshire Waders

I had quite a stroke of luck today-firstly I went to Patrington Haven and managed to get 20 minutes on the waders before the lagoon flooded and it just so happened that a curlew sandpiper chose to walk by me within 20 feet.

There were quite a few other waders on the lagoon including bar tailed godwit, grey plover, redshank and ringed plover. The only other bird of note was a merlin.

I had a quick ride out to Spurn after Pat haven, but a quick look on canal scrape and a chat with some other birders confirmed that there was little of note around.

I then went up to Hornsea Mere in the hope of seeing the pectoral sandpiper. At first there was no sign despite quite a few birders on site, then it appeared out of nowhere as 2 other birders and i watched it circle above us before flying off towards the south side. After a while it was re-located on the spit next to swan island. the only other bird of note was the odd little gull mixing with the black headed gulls.

One of the locals had arranged for the guy who owns the motor boat to take us towards swan island and within 10 minutes we were watching the pec and a rough at very close range. It was quite skittish and didn't hang around, but did stay long enough to get some cracking views.

we went further in search of a med gull which flew north and then we saw what at first we thought was a little egret but after some scrutiny the bird revealed itself as a great white egret.

Cracking bird to end a cracking morning.