Migfest & Migrants

This weekend it was the Migfest at Spurn and also Freedomfest in Hull (for me it was a bit like FestFest!)

Anyway having been to the Freedom Festival on Friday (which was brilliant) it was mid-afternoon before I got to Spurn.

First stop was Westmere Farm for my ticket for Sunday and to collect 2 books from the brilliant Challenge Series by Martin Garner.

After looking around some of the other excellent stands and seeing some superb moths,I thought I would look for some birds.

The sea watch earlier had been excellent but died off by mid afternoon so I went to see if I could se the red-backed shrike. It performed nicely despite the strong north-westerly winds and I managed to get some decent shots.

There were a few common migrants about but nothing new so I headed off to spend the last hour at Stone Creek. There was no sign of the black stork but another red-backed shrike showed quite well.

I headed back for Spurn this morning and arrived before first light with the intention of doing some sea-watching.It wasn't as good as yesterday, however I saw a sooty shearwater, arctic skua, bonxie, fulmar and red throated divers.

It was a bit slow so news of a barred warbler had me heading down Beacon Lane and it showed quite well amongst photogenic red berries.

I went back up to Westmere for a bacon and egg sarnie which was very nice and apart from a spotted flycatcher I saw very little else.

I called in for the reported red-necked phalarope at Hornsea Mere but that had vanished.

All in all the migfest was a wonderful event and will definitely be back next year.

Morning, Night (but not Noon)

I had a couple of trips to Pat Haven on Sunday, the first trip was for the early morning high tide and the second was for the evening high tide (low tide at Pat Haven is all but pointless).

I arrived for about 5.45am and the air was still but some low cloud kept the sun out.

I took up position at my usual spot and almost immediately flocks of waders were whizzing in literally get from where I was.

The first decent bird was a ruff on the pool accompanied by redshank and dunlin. A wary greenshank stopped over fleetingly as did a little egret and then the rising tide had me making a hasty retreat closer to the bank.Some lovely light and a flat calm lagoon made for great photographic opportunities and it was as the tide pushed the waders in a juvenile peregrine flew into the flocks causing mayhem but did not make a kill.

Dunlin and ringed plovers were joined by good numbers of knot and a single bar tailed god wit.All wanting to get some sleep, but the tide kept coming in until the whole flock took flight and disappeared. It was time to head for home-I was back in the house before 9am.

I went back again on the night to the outer pool and again redshank, greenshank and dunlin were the main quarry a single grey plover in summer plumage would not come any closer than 50m.

Again as the tide rose I made my way closer to the bank a single green sandpiper joined the roost but I didn't see anything more interesting.

A cracking place that has just come back into form, hopefully something special might turn up before the summer is out.

Autumn Comes early at Spurn

With some favorable weather over the last couple of days and a few scarce migrants turning up on the East Coast, I set off for Spurn with high hopes this morning.

I arrived before 6 and checked out canal scrape first.A rather keen westerly was blowing -not exactly conducive for migrant birds, as such there was nothing doing there.

Next stop was canal bushes there was only the odd whitethroat and not much else. I heard a report of a redstart at Bluebell car park so headed down there and it was here that there seemed to be a bit more activity. The redstart showed well followed very quickly by a flighty wood warbler, whinchat and yellow wagtail were also in the car park and a lesser whitethroat in the same bush as the redstart as well as willow warblers and lots of juvenile goldfinches.

I went down Beacon Lane to check for the previous days icterine warbler-it didn't show but a flyby peregrine was nice.

I went back to the car park and the wood warbler showed again, just at the same time one was called out from Kilnsea Caravan site.

i went to have a look and this one showed very well at times in the poplar trees in the main entrance.

It was while waiting for the wood warbler that an icterine warbler popped out and again showed well at times.This was accompanied by a pied flycatcher.

News of a barred warbler on the canal crackled over the airwaves so I went over to check it out and got a brief distant view.

I missed the wryneck by a couple of minutes so retraced my steps, the barred warbler didn't show again so I went for some dinner.

Nothing was doing in the afternoon so I made my way home.

Another fantastic trip to the East Coasts premier birding venue.