The mobile phone really is a great invention, it has certainly speeded up the flow of information between people. My phone rung on Thursday afternoon around 3-10pm and it was Mark K from York he said, ?There is a Siberian Accentor near the old school in Easington just before Spurn?. He said other things but none are printable! I do have an understanding employer and if Bob K says ?yes? we may as well give it a go. Common sense out the window time then (things like daylight, traffic etc) Bob drove (he also had a bad cold) and we headed along the M62 around 3-40pm. The usual nonsense around Bradford and Leeds slowed us up, but it was nothing compared to the gridlocked road through Hull. It must have cost us a good 15 minutes. The sky began to darken as we parked up in Easington village, we headed up Vicar`s Lane and were told that the bird was still present and showing well (in the gloom) Just then a sudden rain shower fell as we arrived in the vicinity. The bird had flown minutes before we did to seek shelter, it was not seen again that day. Thanks Nige S and Dave W for consoling us after our ?dip?. After all our efforts, we cursed our luck and the traffic in Hull. It was a sombre drive home.
After a few reassuring calls from birding mates, myself and Bob K hatched a plan to wait for news then decide what to do. I had asked work for a day`s holiday just in case the bird was still present. At around 7-10am another call from an elated Mark K told me that the bird was still present (thanks pal) So, Bob K was informed and we left Milnrow around 7-40am with myself at the controls. It is always a difficult journey along the M62 whichever way you try to go around this time of day, but we did reasonably well and managed a good **mph when possible! Mark K, Martin Q and Mark R all kept us up to date on the bird?s whereabouts, thanks again lads. We arrived in Easington and headed straight for the bird and were rewarded with great views of this Siberian stunner. The bird was feeding happily on small insects that it was catching around the moss covered area. Around 1200 birders saw the bird by the end of the day. The twitch was well marshalled by the lads from the Spurn Observatory. After looking up from my ?twitcher?s glasses? it became apparent what a big event this was, the bird was the first on mainland Britain, so most birders would make an effort to see it (even some of the ?chequebook? birders who had gone to see / dip the first on Shetland) We headed towards Spurn / Kilnsea and the amount of people and birds present was quite staggering. We called firstly to see a very tame Shorelark, near the Bluebell Café, meeting up with Martin Q along the way. Then along Beacon Lane to see 20+ Brambling, masses of Redwing, Fieldfare and a few Ring Ouzels.
THIS HAS BEEN COPIED FROM THE SPURN LOG: - The SIBERIAN ACCENTOR didn?t disappoint and performed admirably all day to around 1200 well behaved observers. There was an awesome arrival of 5 Dusky warbler with birds at the Point, the Narrows, Warren, Canal Scrape and by Rose Cottage with 2 trapped and ringed, a Tawny Pipit was in the Sheepfield, an Olive backed Pipit was by the Bluebell, there was 1 Pallas?s Warbler in Kilnsea churchyard, 2 Richards Pipit, a Little Bunting at Sammys point, a Quail in Clubleys Field, the Great grey Shrike on Vicars lane, 18 Shorelark while during the day there was a fantastic movement of 254 White fronted Geese and 15 Bean Geese . Migrant totals were 26 Woodcock, 5 Short eared Owl, 1 Woodlark, 214 Skylark, 14 Rock Pipit, 505 Robin, 5 Black Redstart, 6 Redstart, 12 Stonechat, 17 Wheatear, 33 Ring Ouzel, 425 Blackbird, 955 Fieldfare, 97 Song Thrush, 870 Redwing, 6 Mistle Thrush, 1 Grasshopper Warbler, 29 Blackcap, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, 4 Yellow browed Warbler, 90 Chiff chaff, 1 Willow Warbler, 182 Goldcrest, 7 Firecrest, 510 Brambling, 60 Siskin, 6 Twite, 58 Mealy Redpoll in the area, 5 Crossbill, 2 Bullfinch, 9 Lapland Bunting. We did not see all those species but it was a ?once in a lifetime ?event. We met lots of people we had not seen for many years, in fact someone said that it was like the birders having their AGM at Spurn! We arrived home around 6pm after again battling our way through the M62 morass, but we did not care we had finally, ?got the bird?. Dave O
