Springtime at Spurn

I had a great trip down to Spurn this morning. I was out of the door just after 5.30 and arrived at Kilnsea just as the Sun was rising.

My first port of call was Kilnsea Wetlands. There wasn't much close to the hide-a redshank soon took flight leaving a pair of mallard splashing about nearby. There were lots of curlew flying around and it wasn't long before a group settled on the grass in front of me, beautifully backlit by the morning sun. Almost immediately a pair of skylarks landed in front of me and provided me with a great opportunity to get a close shot of a difficult bird to photograph.

It was then I heard the news break that a probable Iberian Chiff-Chaff has been located in the Crown and Anchor car park.

It didn't take me long to get up there from the hide and after an initial no-show the Ibe was singing and calling and showed very well in the Spring time sunshine down to about 10m. A nice distraction was a brief firecrest that flitted through the trees and didn't hang around.

The Ibe flew overhead after a while and ended up in the nets in Kew so that was my cue to leave.

I headed up to Sammy's Point and despite a few birds being around there was nothing of note apart from a calling brambling.

I was surprised that nothing else turned up today despite favourable conditions for southern overshooters.

None the less a cracking morning and a good start to my birding year at Spurn.

A trip to the Seaside

I thought I would try around Scarborough today, have a look at a few of the local specialities the go for an hour or two looking for Goshawks.

I started at Holbeck car park and saw some nice mediterranean gulls in the morning light along with a few more commoner black-headed gulls.

Then on to the harbour but didnt see a great deal apart from a few feeding shag (one appeared to catch a dragonet) but no sign of black-necked grebe or great northern diver.

Then on to Forge Valley and had a nice couple of hours there photographing some of the more common species. Great spotted woodpecker, stock dove, marsh tit, nuthatch and treecreeper were all 'new' for the year.

Then on to the raptor watchpoint a few siskins were feeding quite close then a couple of crossbills appeared which was ver nice.

Then the stars of the show appeared goshawks! they were miles away to be fair and well out of the range for a photograph but very nice to see all the same.

By late morning it was beginning to cloud over so I headed off back home after a very nice trip out.

The Dunnington Pine Bunting

I've been meaning to go for the Pine Bunting at Dunnington for a while, but most reports were of it being elusive and the photo's on the net didn't get me running for my camera (especially when there is a Pallid Harrier on the local patch). Recent reports however suggested that it was a little bit more visible so I set off this morning with high hopes of at least seeing the bird.

I parked in the village and headed blindly down Intake Lane-I was there just after Seven so was the first there.

I saw Kerver Lane and headed down there first then doubled back, the last report I read on Twitter suggested that it had gone back to the stubble field at the end of Intake Lane.

I kept on going as all the fields were more like paddocks then through a gate and the first hint of stubble.

There was a decent flock of Yellowhammers feeding about a third of the way down the field so I made my way down. The wind was a biting south westerly without much sign of the sun so pretty chilly. I was soon joined by a coiple of lads who had seen the Pine Bunting in the are I was viewing a couple of weeks earlier.

Another birder joined us and after much scanning in all directions he picked the bird up in a large oak tree about 100 yards away. I got a view of it and a shot of some branches but that was it as it flew away overhead. It then re-appeared after an hour or so in a hedge on the opposite side of the field, then flew into the stubble.

It then flew towards us with a flock of yellow hammers and typically it landed in the deepest cover giving fairly close but obsucured views. It stayed a while giving the small crowd some decent views then flew off. This was the cue for most of the crowd to disappear, amazingly it came back only 5 minutes later and perched up in full view for around 5 minutes.

It then flew back over to the far hedge and then appeared to go back into the stubble.

I was happy with my shots so set off for home at around 11.15 very content with the mornings work.