Spurn After Lockdown

I went for my first trip of the year to Spurn yesterday. I was tempted to travel further afield in the hope of seeing one of the recently reported rarities (male citrine wagtail in Northumberland for example) but my loyalty to Spurn won over-it never lets me down!

I was on the road for 5.30, a little frost on the windscreen and a distinct chill in the air.

The sun had already risen when I arrived-the sunrise was fortunately quite unremarkable.

I had seen that there was a couple of black redstarts at the point so headed off in that direction. Just at the start of the breached I flushed a small falcon and it was instantly recognisable as a merlin. It flew high east and I thought that would be the last I would see of that. The tide was low so very few waders around and surprisingly little over the onwards I trudged.

About three quarters of the way across I saw the small outline of a falcon on a log and lo and behold it was the merlin again.

I approached slowly and it was happy to let me photograph it at a reasonable distance. It then moved up towards the high tide line. It was here that I was able to align the lighthouse in the background and get a few shots which are below. On thinking about it after the even I should have tried to get a deeper depth to some of my photos to try to get the lighthouse into better focus, however I was happy with these. I looked at the photos on the back of the camera, then looked up to see that the merlin had taken flight and was heading back north. At this point the radio crackled and I was fortunete enough to get a sight of two barnacle gees flying south and a single swallow slid by hugging the ground as it battled against the wind.

I carried on towards the point hoping for a few spring migrants, however it was very quiet with only linnets, meadow pipits and quite a few crows overhead for company.

As I arrived at the point, the black redstart wasn’t immediately on view. I walked to the gun emplacement and heard the unmistakeable sound of a cettis warbler piercing the otherwise quiet air. I decided against looking for it and doubled back to the RNLI buildings. I heard an unusual song as I walked around the parede ground and then noticed the black redstart singing from the corner of one of the buildings.

I was quite mobile hunting insects in the warm sunshine. I left it to it after around half an hour and made my way back. The walk back was rather uneventful save for a few more waders and brent geese pushed in by the incoming tide.

All-in-all a very nice trip-the highlight being the merlin but just nice to get back to Spurn twas a bit like catching up with an old friend.

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Merlin

Barnacle Goose

Barnacle Goose

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Black Redstart

Meadow Pipit

Lockdown continued..

Well as lockdown continues with no end in sight, so does wildlife photography from the garden. I haven’t been happy with the settings on my new Nikon D500 but some more tweaking and the flight shots look a lot sharper.

Negative values in terms of temperature but still no snow. At least there was some good light. Another two year ticks for the garden in the form of a flyover cormorant and a first ever for the garden-a goldcrest, albeit for no more than 3 seconds. Takes the list up to 31 for the year.

I had a little wander down to Millenium Orchard near Beverley this morning. Nice to see a few different species nothing unusual but somewhere I’m going to focus on whilst lockdown continues.

Definitely a sense of Spring in the air-blackbirds just started singing, song thrush and a few of the smaller species just giving the hint that winter is on its way out and brighter times are on their way.

Nice to see flowering snowdrops but everything else tighly locked down as winter isnt prepared to loosen its grip just yet.

Another year, another lockdown

So here we are again. It’s another year and another lockdown. This time I feel with more hope-there is light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel.

The end is in sight but for now its time for patience, and while I am missing some of my favourite winter birding places watching from home has been far more productive that I thought it would be. Our mahonia bush has been a great source of nectar not only for the winter bees (last morning they were out and it myust have been at least 0 degrees if not colder!) but also for any number of birds enjoying the sweet nectar-most notable were the blackcaps.

So far the year list stands at 29.

1. House Sparrow

2. Dunnock

3. Robin

4. Starling

5. Blackbird

6. Woodpigeon

7. Collared dove

8. Rook

9. Magpie

10. Carrion crow

11. Jackdaw

12. Herring gull

13. Black headed gull

14. Great Black-Backed Gull

15. Common Gull

16. Pink Footed Goose

17. Grey Heron

18. Blue tit

19. Great Tit

20. Coal Tit

21. Long-Tailed Tit

22. Goldfinch

23. Greenfinch

24. Chaffinch

25. Bullfinch

26. Sparrowhawk

27. Blackcap

28. Fieldfare

29. Meadow pipit

Not all have been in the garden as such-I am counting those that fly over. Given that our garden list stands at a paltry 52, there is scope for this to grow before the year is out.