After a Red Necked Phalarope and various waders were seen in the Kilnsea/Spurn area on Saturday we thought it was time for our first trip to the Spurn area this year. Two of our elder statesmen were missing for the trip so it was myself at the wheel with Chris B and Kevin C. We left Newhey at the leisurely time of 7-30am and by 8-45am we found out that the phalarope had gone. A mild westerly wind, with lots of sun didnt really make us feel that something good might be found though. At Kilnsea Wetlands throngs of waders were on show from the hide with: - 2-Curlew Sandpipers in partial moult, lots of Dunlin, Redshank, 2-Greenshank and Yellow Wagtails, various terns made a very pleasant hours birding. As we headed off towards Beacon Lane pools a loud noise was heard from the direction of the road, it looked like a car had crashed. With the subsequent arrival of some police, fire brigade and ambulance vehicles it proved to be a bad crash. On the way to the pools Chris B found what was an Essex Skipper butterfly, well found Chris! A Great White Egret on the pools along with a distant Ringed Plover and the nesting Little Tern colony at full swing being the highlights.
Back on the carpark we had our lunch as lots of emergency crew milled around, the lady casualty was being made comfortable as the Air Ambulance helicopter landed on the road right in front of us. She was soon whisked off to hospital, we later found out that she didnt suffer any serious injuries. We headed to the warren area and had a sea watch, all of us sat in the sunshine, very pleasant but not many birds though. One highlight was two Oystercatchers together with a Whimbrel headed south close into the shoreline, not seen that before. Five Kittiwakes, Common Scoters, Gannets, terns and loafing gulls and a few more small flocks of Whimbrel made up a nice sea watch. We had been joined by a gentleman from Bury called Peter who as we exchanged names said that he read my reports and enjoyed them!
We returned to Kilnsea Wetlands as the tide was coming in to find lots more gulls being present. A total on the day of 10 species of gull namely: - Mediterranean, Great Black Backed, Lesser Black Backed, Herring, Black Headed, Little, Common, Caspian and Yellow Legged (Kittiwakes on the sea) The identification of the Caspian Gull, which was a juvenile, took a little time as we pondered the various identification features!
On our way home we decided to call at a small reservoir called Southfield fairly near to Snaith to try to connect with 2 Ruddy Shelduck that had been present for a while. We went down a dusty track and arrived at a large expanse of water complete with sailing crafts and fishermen, but alas, no Ruddy Shelduck. Commons and a Sandwich Tern were nice to see though. It was around 8pm when we all arrived home after our first taste of Spurn of the year, we will be back soon.
