Early Spring at Spurn

Today I had my first proper trip of the year to Spurn and not a bad one it turned out to be.

First decent bird was a barn Owl hunting over the triangle, then a firecrest ringed at the warren made its way to canal bushes where I struggled to get a shot.

There were a few chief-chaffs about as well as plenty of gold crests.

Next there was a pair (male and female) of black redstarts at the Riverside Hotel accompanied by my first wheatear of the year.

A swallow flew north (my first of the year) and a short eared owl hunted towards long bank.

I had a quick look in the crown car park before I left and the first bird I saw was another firecrest, but by now the light had gone.

A short eared owl was hunting in fields on Easington straight on the way home.

I also collected my copy of Spurn Wildlife and I'm pleased to say my photo of the masked shrike was on the front cover.

All in all not a bad day, very rarely does Spurn let me down.

Black Bellied Dipper

Looks like it might have moved on.

Been up a few times for it, photography was never easy, heres a few of my best shots.

Mixed Fortunes...

I thought I would get out early this morning and head off back up to Filey for another crack at the surf scoter then head back down to Harpham for the reported black-bellied dipper.

Got to filey for around 7.45 and the drive up was pretty grim with thick fog for most of the way.

Looking over the cliff top the good news was that the sun was breaking through but the bad new was that there was no sign of the surf scoter.

I spent a good quarter of an hour deliberating as to whether I should make the perilous decent to the bottom of the cliff.

I noticed a birder in front of me had gone down so maybe he'd seen something.

As I got to the end of the cliff I had another scan before climbing down and this time I saw a duck less than 10 yards off the rocks and the birder had set his scope in from of it!

The decent was all the more quicker ! eventually getting down and across the rocks in double quick time.

The bird stayed feeding just off the rocks for a good twenty minutes before slowly drifting along and then back out into the bay.

An absolutely stunning bird, doubtful if I'll ever get this close to a surf scoter again.

I called in at Harpham on the way back and spent a good hour and a half looking for the black bellied dipper to no avail.Hey Ho!