When a Red-eyed Vireo turned up at Spurn I was pretty
thrilled, a proper rarity on the east coast. My chances of seeing it were
small, given I already had plans for the Saturday, but when the bird was still
present on the Sunday I decided, why not, and drove over for a few hours to see
the bird before driving north to Cumbria for work.
The bird was present on Vicars Lane in Easington, and when I
arrived there was still a small crowd despite the rain and the fact that it was
early afternoon. My initial experience was everything I hate about twitching,
with a crowd following a bird that isn’t showing particularly well. But then,
when a few more locals arrived it became apparent that the bird was favouring a
Dogwood tree with berries, appearing every half hour or so and showing nicely.
With this routine established, I got fantastic views of the bird, my first
American passerine in Britain.
-Red-eyed Vireo
Whilst this was going on, news broke of a Great Snipe on
Beacon Lane. Once I was happy with the Vireo I headed down to see that.
Remarkably the bird was sat on the path, although obscured by grass. Given most
Great Snipes are flushed and never seen again, this was a real treat and it was
nice to be able to actually look at the bird. This was obviously the icing on
the cake for the afternoon. Two British ticks in a single afternoon.
-Great Snipe
All while enjoying the rarities there were thrushes dropping
out of the sky, Redwings and Fieldfares appearing in every bush. And then there
were hundreds of Siskins piling through, and Bramblings feeding on the path as
we walked along. It really was a fantastic day out at Spurn.
Species List:
Spurn Bird
Observatory: Mute Swan, Common Pheasant, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon, Collared
Dove, Great Snipe, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Herring Gull, Grey Heron,
Common Kestrel, Merlin, Red-eyed Vireo, Eurasian Magpie, Carrion Crow, Blue
Tit, Great Tit, Barn Swallow, Yellow-browed Warbler, Chiffchaff, Blackcap,
Wren, Redwing, Fieldfare, Blackbird, Robin, Pied Flycatcher, Dunnock, House
Sparrow, Grey Wagtail, Pied Wagtail, Meadow Pipit, Chaffinch, Brambling,
Greenfinch, Goldfinch, Siskin,
No comments:
Post a Comment