A day at Spurn in September is always like a trip into the unknown because anything can turn up, so we decided to head for the far east of Yorkshire. There had been Red backed Shrike, Icterine Warbler seen the day previous so on the journey we eagerly waited for news from Spurn. Steve B, Kevin C and myself driving had left Rochdale at 6am and arrived at Spurn around 8-15am. The only news was of an Ortolan Bunting flying around at 7-15am. The weather/wind direction at Spurn was not really good for sea watching, but you never know. Lots of terns heading south, along with Gannets, Guillemots and gulls loafing around kind of backed up the quiet on the sea theory. Then as often happens, two Great Skua`s or Bonxie`s appeared and began chasing the terns around, what a splendid sight. A drive to Whinchat hedge revealed around 3 Whinchat`s, always nice to admire these well marked birds. A lad on a bike stopped and said, Have you heard about the Ortolan Bunting near the Church field. We told him no, and away we went to try to see it, as Kevin C had not seen one before. After a walk across the first field we saw a large flock of Linnets and Greenfinch feeding in the next stubble field, the bird was in that flock! A small crowd searched the often flighty flock, with not much success, all of a sudden they seemed to fly away. A message on a walky-talky said there is an Ortolan Bunting sat on the fence on Clubleys field, could it be the same bird? A dash up there soon had us watching the bird as it fed around 30 yards away and giving great views, as the crowd began to swell two birds flew into the grass, it turned out that two Ortolan Buntings were present. Nice to see Darren W and his birding mates from the Leeds area here also.
Two Common Cranes had been seen that morning in fields near Aldbrough, about 15 miles away, so we had a try for them without any joy, nice area though. A Red necked Phalarope was still present at Blacktoft RSPB reserve near Goole (on our way home) It had been a warm day, but it always feels warmer at Blacktoft? We went to Singleton Hide and the Red necked Phalarope was seen albeit a little distant at first until it came closer, also present were 3 Water Rail, Garganey, Marsh Harrier, Green Sandpiper. The Spotted Crake was not seen by ourselves, but showed later in the day. Again we met up with Darren W and his crew who told us they would be stopping at Goole Fields to search for Yellow legged Gulls. We met them there and had fleeting views of one example as the flock flew off. We reached home by 7pm and all enjoyed the day out.
