The first Easterly winds Monday Tuesday Wednesday after a month looked promising and the promise indeed was big. On Tuesday an Eye Browed Thrush was pulled out of a mistnet at Spurn and then rung! There are 29 accepted records of this species in Britain and this is a first record for the Spurn area. The only other Yorkshire record was back in 1981. I was able to visit on Wednesday and it was going to be a solo visit. Little Buntings were recorded at Spurn which would have been a first for me as well as Firecrest, Lapland Buntings and an American Golden Plover.
I arrived at 9am because light rain was forecast in the morning which cleared up at 11am. On the way I saw Red Kite east of the M1 junction, a Raven at Ottringham and Rooks just before Kilnsea. I stopped by the Crown and Anchor to see if the American Golden Plover was present and if the Great Skua would be there but no luck with either. The Great Skua had started to target Little Egrets to feed upon! A group of older birders were clearly getting excited near some trees and the cause was a Yellow Browed Warbler. They may have started birding when this species was a much rarer sight some decades ago. It was a hyper sprite and I would lose 10kg trying to take a photo of it I felt so left. As I drove to the next stop I could hear tissit tissit very loudly from a hedge. Small bird but quite loud! The next stop was the Kilnsea Wetlands which were still dry and hadn't filled up yet. Within seconds Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings, Linnets, Starling, Tree Sparrow, Skylark, Pied Wagtail, Stonechat could be seen and heard. Woodpigeon, Stock Dove, Jackdaw, Crows, Magpies, Pheasants, Black headed Gulls all fed in the fields. Flocks of Waders flew over such as Grey Plover, Dunlin with a Black Tailed Godwit, Ringed Plover and Redshank flew over. Greylag, Pink Footed Geese, Wigeon and Teal also flew over. The highlight of this stop was a Yellow Wagtail over.
I parked at the Discovery Centre and made my way to the Canal Scrape Hide where a Moorhen and Dunlin were joined by 3 Teal and a Tree Pipit flew caround the site. The Tree Pipit was late and didn't seem in a rush to move on. The Meadow Pipits seemed very bright and fresh. A Hare also ran across the field. Two friends spotted two Gannets flying over which was a nice surprise from the Humber side.
The next stop was around the Warren, sea watching hide. I managed to spot one of the two Pied Flycatchers. Watching from a screen that over looked the Humber we saw Little Egrets, Chaffinch, Meadow Pipits, Linnets but no Little Bunting which was sighted here. The Reed Buntings raised many hopes but all dashed on inspection. Brambling and Blackcap were 2 nice surprises watching here.
Over to the sea watching and I joined some "seasoned" sea watchers. 4 friends from Hampshire and Sussex, I commented "you must be annoyed having no coastline!" Shoveler, Pintail, Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Curlew, Bar Tailed Godwits, Sanderling, Dunlin, Grey Plover, Redshank, Ruff, Greenshank, Black Tailed Godwits passed before us. Out at sea were Red Throated Divers, Red Breasted Mergansers, Common Scoters, Gannets, Kittiwake, Little Gull, 1 Common Tern with 4 Sandwich Terns. 2 Arctic Skua passed distant, a Manx Shearwater were birds I have not seen for a while. We saw some birds crossing the sea to land. We watched 4 Grey herons come in together and head to land. I picked up a bird coming in and one of the "seasoned" sea watchers said it was a Skua. At distance I said surely it is a wader but as it got closer it was clearly a small Falcon, a Merlin! 10 years ago we saw 2 Short Eared Owls come to land from the sea which was mesmerizing. We also noticed Song Trush and Starling coming in off the sea. A Song Thrush landed on the beach in front of us, clearly tired but flew on after 10 seconds. It had made it across the sea and stopping too long could have meant predation. At least 10 Song Thrush flew over then and more during the day.
The next stop was lunch consisting of cold meat sandwiches. The meat from lambchops. It was cake o clock so I opted for Plum Crumble or Plumble with squirting cream! It was absolutely delicious.
I wandered around the visitor centre and along the Humber where Goldcrest, Blue Tit, great Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Dunnock, Greenfinch, Robin, Blackbird, Chiffchaff, Cetti's Warbler. On the Humber 2 Wheatear, a Song Thrush joined the others, Spotted Redshank Golden Plover, Oystercatcher, Shelduck, Turnstone also made it onto the day list. A Jay was sighted twice by me, a Spurn rarity
It was 3.30pm and I decided to leave. A Baird Sandpiper was sighted at St Aidan's which was on the way back. I decided to go for it. Over 30 had been sighted in Britain this year and in some inland areas too. I decided to try my luck and on arrival I was directed to where it was seen. It took 15 minutes to walk to that spot to be told it flew over to the other side and it had just been relocated. I marched off and on arrival just learnt it had flown off again barely a minute before I arrived. The locals said it was worth checking the original spot but no luck at all. I had to march back to the car park on very tired legs.
The late afternoon autumn light shone beautifully at St Aidan's. I managed to add Osprey, Sparrowhawk, Mistle Thrush, Great Crested Grebe, Little Grebe, Coot, Gadwall, Tufted Duck, Pochard, Mute Swan, Canada Geese, Great Egret, Cattle Egret. A flock of 100 plus Lapwing spread out in the sky confidently wheeling. Snipe, Grey Plover, Ruff, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Black Tailed Godwit were also present.
I did consider whether I should visit Spurn and why not St Aidan's due to the distance and time. Had I listened to that instinct I would have added the Bairds Sandpiper.
