Spurn Day 52

I awoke late by birders standards today, and headed up to the Numpties watchpoint to see what was moving. There was good movement with a wide variety of species. The highlight included a Great-Spotted Woodpecker by the warren which was a spurn tick for me. 4114 Swallows went south, 161 Sand Martins and 507 House Martins, though I was not there for all of them I did take part in the counting process. 

There were also a few Mediterranean gulls, a couple of Rooks, and a few waders such as Turnstone and Bar-Tailed Godwit. It was late morning by the time that we had finished up at the watchpoint and it left me with plenty of time to wander around.

I headed off down to Big Hedge first in order to have another look at the Red-Backed Shrike that was still there. It continued to show very well, but today I did not to try and approach it but just to watch it from the hedge. It still gave fantastic views as it moved up and down the hedge. But I did not stay too long admiring.

-Red-Backed Shrike

I wandered all over through the day, including Sammies Point, Kilnsea Wetlands and Beacon Ponds. The highlight of my mooching was the 3 Little Stints that were still on wetlands looking really nice and quite close, so I could try to take a few photos of them. Sadly they were still too far away to get any really good photos. 

On the ponds there were still a few wildfowl, including Tufted Ducks, Wigeon and Teal. The real reason for all my mooching was to do a full Little Egret count for the reserve since Andy had mentioned at log the previous night that they should really get one for every month. The total I managed was 13 birds, most of them at sammies, though I was unable to go down the point to count.

At 6.10 I headed up to the seawatch to watch the terns go past. It was a phenomenal tern count 10360 Common Terns flew past, in the second highest count for over 3 years, the highest also happened during my time. It was fantastic to observe, though it did not feel like such a high count as it had done on the previous night. This time it started slowly and yet subtly built up into the impressive count that we got.

But it was not just the Common Terns that were phenomenal, as there were also a couple of more unusual terns, not least the much awaited appearance of a Roseate Tern, which Tim spotted flying far out with a few commons. At first I struggled to pick it up, but once I had got it you could see how much whiter it was, though most other details were lost due to distance. It was fantastic to finally get one though, and add it to my year-list. 

Species List:

Vis-Migging: Fulmar, Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Greenfinch, Snipe, Dunlin, Tree Sparrow, Great-Crested Grebe, Skylark, Oystercatcher, Sandwich Tern, Whinchat, Arctic Skua, Wigeon, Common Teal, Mallard, Reed Warbler, Starling, Swallow, Sand Martin, House Martin, Swift, Meadow Pipit, Feral Pigeon, Pied Flycatcher, Great Tit, Dunnock, Little Egret, Redshank, Knot, Linnet, Cormorant, Marsh Harrier, Mediterranean Gull, Magpie, Turnstone, Ruff, Bar-Tailed Godwit, Rook, Yellow Wagtail, Ringed Plover,

Mooching About: Pied Flycatcher, Red-Backed Shrike, Little Egret, Wheatear, Whinchat, Golden Plover, Willow Warbler, Spotted Flycatcher, Whitethroat, Reed Bunting, Little Stint, Grey Heron, Sanderling, Tufted Duck, Wigeon, Mute Swan, Cormorant, Kestrel, Teal, Sparrowhawk

Seawatching: Sanderling, Gannet, Oystercatcher, Sandwich Tern, Black-Headed Gull, Arctic Skua, Whimbrel, Fulmar, Puffin, Roseate Tern, Mediterranean Gull, Shelduck, Common Tern,