Spurn Day 5

The second day of the festival, for me, was just a bit of blogging about really. Given yesterday’s seawatch success that’s where I started, but there were not as many birds, only a few Skuas and the like.

Still early into the morning there was a radio message called out that a funny looking Redpoll had been caught at churchfield and would Martin go and have a look. Martin was otherwise detained by breakfast but I got a lift up with Clive and we went to go and check it out.

The reason for the interest was that the bird showed characters of being a Mealy Redpoll, in that it was larger, greyer and had more white around it. We were not convinced but when in the hand next to a Lesser Redpoll the contrast was obvious, and when we had a look at the photos later it was pretty clear that it was indeed a Mealy Redpoll, only that a number of its characters were not as pronounced as we would like. Either way, it was an interesting start to the morning, and Mealy Redpoll was a lifer for me, so there we go then.

-Lesser and Mealy Redpoll

-Mealy Redpoll

 The rest of the day passed without real incident. In the late morning I did a little bit of the triangle and watched a Barred Warbler crashing through some bushes along Beacon Lane. I had left my camera in the warren, as I had been trying to gather my things from the previous night (Left in Tims Car) and so only had the scope. It was a shame really as it was the best view of the species I have ever had.

That being considered, in the afternoon I headed up the Westmere Farm to photograph another, different Barred Warbler which was frequenting the hedges along the back of the barn. It was more distant but at times just as showy and I got a few photos of it sat atop the hedge.

-Barred Warbler

 As the festival began to die down I headed up to Steves for a BBQ to celebrate the festival. I was a little early so wandered up the wetlands and to scan the fields at Sammies. I was pleasantly surprised to see a Short-eared Owl quartering the fields at Sammies, whilst on Wetlands there were 3 Ruff feeding. A really nice end to the day and the festival.

-Short-Eared Owl

Species List:

Triangle: Spotted Flycatcher, Barred Warbler, Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Lesser Redpoll, Mealy Redpoll, Siskin, Mediterranean Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Great-Spotted Woodpecker, Herring Gull, Woodpigeon, Ruff, Short-eared Owl, House Sparrow, Starling, Carrion Crow,