A Nice Morning at Spurn

April 25, 2021

There is no such thing as a bad day at Spurn. Nor a poor day-not even mediocre. No matter how cold, how windy or even a lack of Spring migrants the default experience at Spurn is nice. A showing of common and scarce Spiring migrants would no doubt have elevated the experience to excellent or awesome.

The last 2 weekends have been full of promise but delivered very little in terms of Spring migrants, however the sunrises have been quite special, the open space and sound of the dawn chorus as well as the haunting sounds of curlew as they head ‘out east’ has made the experience nice.

Kilnsea Wetlands have been the best places for photography with the odd decent shot from Sammy’s Point and Sykes field.

Just hoping that we get a turn in the weather pretty soon. The best month is is still yet to come so all’s not lost just yet.

Early Start at Spurn

April 10, 2021

No real sign of any Spring migrants yet but I thought I’d go to Spurn anyway. There is always something to look at if you try hard enough.

I was up very early and at Spurn just before 6. My hope was to catch some waders in early light, however as I drove by Kilnsea Wetlands I had to do a u-turn-the colour of the water before the sun rose was stunning.

Within minutes I was photographing shellducks, teal wigeon and some black-tailed godwits in stunning light. Not a bad start at all. A barn owl came straight towards me and veered off alarmingly as it realised I was there-what a great start.

As the sun ros I moved on to the Humber.

The tide wasnt as big s I thought so waders were keeping their distance. A few meadow and rock pipits were around as were plenty of linnets.

After a while I thought I would try Sammie’s Point. A wheatear perched up on a bush was a good sign as I pulled into the car park and a buzzard perched up on a gatepost was nice.

I hoped for a ring ouzel or yellow wagtail but unfortunately there was no sign. The recent northerly airflow has slowed northbound migration to a trickle.

After a while a couple of wheatears came close offering some nice views.

It was nice to be out but there were few migrants around and it wasn’t long before I was on my way back.

A buzzard on the road side just outside Easington posed very nicely allowing some good views. All in all I had 6 buzzards during the course of the morning.

I was very pleased with the mornings efforts and even on a quiet day Spurn can still deliver the goods.

Rolll on warm south-easterlies in the next few weeks.

Spurn After Lockdown

April 05, 2021

I went for my first trip of the year to Spurn yesterday. I was tempted to travel further afield in the hope of seeing one of the recently reported rarities (male citrine wagtail in Northumberland for example) but my loyalty to Spurn won over-it never lets me down!

I was on the road for 5.30, a little frost on the windscreen and a distinct chill in the air.

The sun had already risen when I arrived-the sunrise was fortunately quite unremarkable.

I had seen that there was a couple of black redstarts at the point so headed off in that direction. Just at the start of the breached I flushed a small falcon and it was instantly recognisable as a merlin. It flew high east and I thought that would be the last I would see of that. The tide was low so very few waders around and surprisingly little over the onwards I trudged.

About three quarters of the way across I saw the small outline of a falcon on a log and lo and behold it was the merlin again.

I approached slowly and it was happy to let me photograph it at a reasonable distance. It then moved up towards the high tide line. It was here that I was able to align the lighthouse in the background and get a few shots which are below. On thinking about it after the even I should have tried to get a deeper depth to some of my photos to try to get the lighthouse into better focus, however I was happy with these. I looked at the photos on the back of the camera, then looked up to see that the merlin had taken flight and was heading back north. At this point the radio crackled and I was fortunete enough to get a sight of two barnacle gees flying south and a single swallow slid by hugging the ground as it battled against the wind.

I carried on towards the point hoping for a few spring migrants, however it was very quiet with only linnets, meadow pipits and quite a few crows overhead for company.

As I arrived at the point, the black redstart wasn’t immediately on view. I walked to the gun emplacement and heard the unmistakeable sound of a cettis warbler piercing the otherwise quiet air. I decided against looking for it and doubled back to the RNLI buildings. I heard an unusual song as I walked around the parede ground and then noticed the black redstart singing from the corner of one of the buildings.

I was quite mobile hunting insects in the warm sunshine. I left it to it after around half an hour and made my way back. The walk back was rather uneventful save for a few more waders and brent geese pushed in by the incoming tide.

All-in-all a very nice trip-the highlight being the merlin but just nice to get back to Spurn twas a bit like catching up with an old friend.