I had a great trip down to Spurn this morning. I was out of the door just after 5.30 and arrived at Kilnsea just as the Sun was rising.

My first port of call was Kilnsea Wetlands. There wasn't much close to the hide-a redshank soon took flight leaving a pair of mallard splashing about nearby. There were lots of curlew flying around and it wasn't long before a group settled on the grass in front of me, beautifully backlit by the morning sun. Almost immediately a pair of skylarks landed in front of me and provided me with a great opportunity to get a close shot of a difficult bird to photograph.

It was then I heard the news break that a probable Iberian Chiff-Chaff has been located in the Crown and Anchor car park.

It didn't take me long to get up there from the hide and after an initial no-show the Ibe was singing and calling and showed very well in the Spring time sunshine down to about 10m. A nice distraction was a brief firecrest that flitted through the trees and didn't hang around.

The Ibe flew overhead after a while and ended up in the nets in Kew so that was my cue to leave.

I headed up to Sammy's Point and despite a few birds being around there was nothing of note apart from a calling brambling.

I was surprised that nothing else turned up today despite favourable conditions for southern overshooters.

None the less a cracking morning and a good start to my birding year at Spurn.