Late Autumn at Spurn

Martin Standley November 9, 2025

Well Autumn took an unexpected twist this week. Unfavourable winds brought in a few migrants to Spurn, fortunately they all converged on the same place making for a very pleasurable couple of hours.

News came through on Thursday that a pallas’s warbler was in Sykes Field at Kilnsea and it was accompanied by a yellow-browed warbler and a firecrest. With a trio of birds like that it was difficult to resist so I was on my way by half-ten.

The particular area they were all frequenting is a u-shaped line of willows with the southern end open. Conditions weren’t great for photography, however I think that cloudy, misty conditions actually add to the image and capture the atmosphere and ‘feel’ of the day.

The pallas’s warbler had been trapped and ringed the previous day and it weighed less than 5 grammes.It find it utterly incredible that this tiny lightweight had travelled from somewhere in Siberia, crossed the north sea in unfavourable winds and hereit was in a feeding frenzy, trying to build up its weight to continue its journey to who knows where!

The yellow-browed warbler will have made a similar journey and if I were guessing, I’d presume the firecrest had come from continental europe at least.

Conditions werent great for photography but my new nikon kit coped more than adequately. the more I get used to this stunning technology, the better the results appear to be.

Maybe Autumn has a few more surprises yet?

Hen Harriers on the Humber

Martin Standley October 31, 2025

I have always been fascinated by birds of prey and especially hen harriers. I can remember looking at pictures in my bird books and only dreaming of seeing one. I just thought they were too far out of reach with living on the coats in east yorkshire and no means of transport to get to see them on their breeding grounds.

Little did I know that they are easier to see than I first thought. A small number of them spend winter on the Humber and head back to their breeding grounds in early Spring. An even smaller number of adult male hen harriers can be seen and this year there are at least 2 overwintering on the Humber.

Whilst they have been reported almost every day since mid-October, they are not easy to find. I have found that ‘ringtail’ hen harriers seem to favour quite a small area and are relatively easy to track down. However the males seem to like to rove over a far greater area, and don’t hang around making them very difficult to photograph.

Anyway not to be deterred, I have put in 3 days so far this winter and managed to figure out a place to photograph them that gives a reasonable chance of success. I’ll not name the specific location here, but it is generally in the location of the ‘Outstrays’ between Patrington Haven and Skeffling.

In 24 hours of being in the field, I have viewed male hen harriers for a collective time of no more than 10 minutes.

On Thursday of this week I had my best session so far-I had 6 separate views of possibly both hen harriers and in one flight sequence it came close enough to photograph. However the light wasn’t great and it was above the skyline so not a great background, however it is encouraging.

The good thing about the Humber is that its also great for other raptors which can keep me busy while the hen harriers aren’t showing.

There’s still plenty of time left this winter so this is one project that will be getting some more effort put in over the next few weeks.