Our annual trip to the Easington, Kilnsea and Spurn area took place a little earlier due to, what seemed like migration taking place sooner? With light easterly winds and sunny conditions our team assembled and with Kevin C at the wheel we set off. Our first call was to be at Sunk Island/ Stone Creek to visit John Ward who has been recording the birds at this location for many years (he also co-found Britain`s first Mugimaki Flycatcher) The tide was going out as we arrived and as the boys walked around myself and John had a good catch up. A Kingfisher flew past us and appeared to land close by enabling Steve B to get some pictures. Masses of gulls, waders and a few egrets were observed in the hour we were there. Our friend from the Wirral Mark G had arrived at Spurn and we arranged to meet him near the sea watching hide, not much movement on the sea apart from: - 12 Red throated Divers (11 in one party) Teal, Wigeon, Common Scoter, 4 Sandwich Tern and the regular gulls. News of a Little Bunting having been trapped in Sykess Field came as a surprise and as Kevin C needed it for his British list, we all gathered pace to see the bird. It was released and sat out for all to admire this fairly rare bird on an adjacent barbed wire fence. At Kilnsea Wetlands we saw: - 2 Little Stint, lots of Dunlins but mainly about 20 Mediterranean Gulls coming into bathe, quite a sight! More news in the form of a Lapland Bunting on the concrete slipway at Beacon Ponds reached us, off we went and after a short wait the bird was seen. The Lapland Bunting performed really well at 10 feet distance allowing us all to get some nice pictures of it (yes even me). We headed for the Marquis of Granby in Easington for our two night stay and had our evening meal at the Crown & Anchor in Kilnsea that is now under new ownership.
Saturday
Now I normally like to get up and get into the field nice and early but, with a sore hip I decided to rest a little longer in bed. At 9am breakfast Bob K, Steve B and Kevin C all told me what I had missed in the way of Yellow browed Warbler, Yellow Wagtail and lots of other passerines. A magnificent full English breakfast was enjoyed and then back to Sammy`s Point to catch up on the birds that I had missed, thanks lads! A few Pintail were seen on Kilnsea Wetlands but news of a Firecrest in Kew Villa had us heading for there. The Firecrest sat out for a few seconds bathed in sunshine (hopefully captured by ace photographer Craig B) and the bird had us all gasping at its real beauty. A Wood Warbler in St Helen`s churchyard was seen very actively chasing small prey items, a very well-marked bird. A walk around Church Field had us looking at a couple of Mealy/Common Redpoll in amongst a small flock of Lesser Redpoll. We had a look in the Canal Scrape and after locating a Common Snipe we were told that a Jack Snipe was sat very close to it. Mark G let us all see the Jack Snipe through his scope, thanks Mark. Towards the end of the day we enjoyed another look at some of today`s good birds e.g. Firecrest, Wood Warbler then we had a look down Vicar`s lane in Easington, but failed to locate the Hawfinch`s. We watched some football in the Marquis of Granby, Kevin C & Steve B did not enjoy the game! A nice meal there and a couple of pints in The White Horse ended proceedings for the day.
Sunday
A rather misty morning had us visiting Kew Villa, St Helens churchyard and we quickly managed to see 2 Brambling and a few Siskins, its taken myself until now to catch up with both these species this year! More great views of the Firecrest followed with Pied Flycatcher, Lesser and Common Whitethroat, Wood Warbler, Chiffchaff and Willow Warbler. News of a Ring Ouzel along Peter Lane had us taking a look for it, without any success. Another look for the Yellow browed Warbler at Sammy`s Point was our next quest. Now as we waited patiently for the bird to appear in its chosen tree or clump, which it did not do in 2 hours, something unusual happened. This is not criticism of our fellow birders, as we all have to start somewhere but, when a couple of fully loaded gentlemen with the top optical and photographic gear miss identify 2 Chiffchaffs as 2 Yellow browed Warblers, surely there is a problem? I would have loved to have pointed this out but they were bigger than me, enough said about that then. We said goodbye to Mark G and left the Spurn area around 2-30pm with the intention to visit Southfield Reservoir to possibly see a Glossy Ibis that was there. As sleep had overcome our party we decided not to bother and all reached home by 5pm having enjoyed a great trip.
P.S. If anyone reading this is a regular visitor to Spurn please join The Friends of Spurn its only £24 per year and you receive a brilliant yearly bird report and can visit all the great areas to see the birds
