Spurn Day 1 -
Wednesday 23rd August
Having earned a little money from my stint as a Bee-eater
warden I decided to spent the rest of my year volunteering back at Spurn,
whilst at the same time beginning to train to become a ringer. For my first day
I was given a real treat in the Juvenile Rose-coloured Starling that had been
found the previous weekend was still present and frequenting the feeders at
Driftwood. The light was pretty awful but it’s still a decent Spurn tick. In
the evening I headed down to the evening tern roost. It was a fairly healthy
movement, but still not spectacular. There were over 4000 Common Terns plus a
couple of Skuas and Manxies. All this and just in the first few hours, only at
Spurn.
-Rose-coloured Starling
-Common Terns
Spurn Day 2 -
Thursday 24th August
Sadly my first full day at Spurn was spent taking down the
Little Tern electric fence. This is the worst job of the whole project, so it
was a bummer to spent my first day doing it, but once it’s over then it’s not a
concern until next year.
As a result I was only able to spent the evening birding.
Instead of going down to the evening tern roost I decided to check the high
tide roost on the wetlands. There were a few birds present, the standout of the
waders being a nice Juv Little Stint, and a few very nice Ruff. A couple of
Short-eared Owl were also quite nice, especially when it perched up near-ish to
the hide.
-Short-eared Owl
Spurn Day 3 - Friday
25th August
In my quest to actually find something decent this autumn I decided
to work the point as much as possible. It did not get off to an amazing start,
with a Spotted Flycatcher about the best bird that I could muster. A couple of
Whinchat and a single Wheatear made up the rest of the migrant contingent. It
was a pleasant enough walk though, and something I am deffo looking forward to
for the rest of the autumn.
Whilst I was down the point a couple of Great White Egrets
had turned up on the Wetlands. Upon my return from the peninsula I headed
straight off to see them. They were a little distant but I was able to get
substantially better views than the last time I had seen this species at Spurn.
In the afternoon we had something of a Spurn mega. Tim retrieved a Southern
Hawker from the Heligoland trap in Churchfield. This is the first Spurn record
since one in 2013, the latter was found by me and was probably my best find of
that year.
-Great White Egret
-Southern Hawker
Spurn Day 4 -
Saturday 26th August
Continuing with the theme of working the point as much as
possible I headed down the point once again today. Sadly the species
composition was much the same as the previous, although I expected nothing
less. Once back north of the breach I spent the afternoon doing not very much.
In the evening we had a BBQ for the birthday of a Spurn regular. Whilst not
likely to be a birding hotspot on the face of it we did have a pretty sweet
evening bird wise, with a number of Mediterranean Gulls flying over, a Hobby
trying to take out Swallows and the Rose-coloured Starling which dropped into
the bushes in Steves garden after spending an hour or so on show with the large
Starling flock.
Spurn Day 5 - Sunday
27th August
After a late night of celebrating a Spurn birthday I was not
quick off the mark in the morning. I spent the morning beginning my ringing
work by handling my first birds. The vast majority of the birds we caught were
Tree Sparrows, although I was also able to handle the only House Sparrow we
caught. We added a Willow Warbler to our totals which was also nice, and even
posed nicely for a few photos.
In the evening I did a walk around the ponds and wetlands,
sadly not much was around although a Common Sandpiper was my first of the year.
I also had a Short-eared Owl and a few more Willow Warblers. Ultimately though
I failed to see anything overly unusual, besides the usual juvenile
Rose-coloured Starling, which was still associating with the large Starling
flock around Kilnsea.
Spurn Day 6 - Monday
28th August
The initial stages of my ringing training involved becoming
comfortable handling birds. As a result I spent most of the morning in
Churchfield hoping to catch some birds which I could then study and handle.
Sadly birds were in very short supply and the only thing we caught was a single
Willow Warbler. In the afternoon I was drafted in to cover the new Spurn shop
outside the Obs. It was a pretty tedious task and there were sadly no birds
involved at all.
-Willow Warbler
Spurn Day 7 - Tuesday
29th August
After a long and ultimately pointless day venturing into
Hull, it was nice to return to Spurn to find that there had been an extremely
light fall of migrants. I initially went hunting for the pied flycatchers in
the crown car park but failed to connect. I then proceeded to work the canal
but to no reward, despite an hour trying. Five Willow Warblers were all I could
muster. I ended my search at the Warren where I worked with Kieran, watching
him ring what little birds were being trapped. Just as we were wrapping up news
came through that Paul had caught an Icterine Warbler. We headed up to see the
bird in the hand. Sadly it was not a sitter, but I was able to get a few nice
shots of it in the hand. A pretty sweet end to a rather uneventful day!
-Icterine Warbler
Species List:
Spurn Bird Obs: Wigeon, Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Brent Goose, Greylag Goose, Mute Swan, Red-throated Diver, Gannet, Manx Shearwater, Cormorant, Hobby, Kestrel, Sparrowhawk, Marsh Harrier, Common Buzzard, Moorhen, Coot, Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Little Egret, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Lapwing, Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Little Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, Turnstone, Bar-tailed Godwit, Whimbrel, Curlew, Greenshank. Common Redshank, Ruff, Common Sandpiper, Green Sandpiper, Wood Sandpiper, Common Tern, Arctic Tern, Black Tern, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Kittiwake, Little Gull, Arctic Skua, Great Skua, Woodpigeon, Collard Dove, Feral Pigeon, Short-eared Owl, Skylark, Meadow Pipit, Yellow Wagtail, White Wagtail, Whinchat, Stonechat, Robin, Pied Flycatcher, Wren, Dunnock, Blackcap, Whitethroat, Lesser Whitethroat, Reed Warbler, Sedge Warbler, Icterine Warbler, Willow Warbler, Chiffchaff, Starling, Rose-coloured Starling, Magpie, Carrion Crow, House Sparrow, Tree Sparrow, Goldfinch, Greenfinch, Chaffinch, Reed Bunting, Migrant Hawker, Southern Hawker, Ruddy Darter, Common Darter, Common Emerald Damselfly, Speckled Wood, Red Admiral, Small Heath, Common Blue, Small Tortoiseshell, Meadow Brown, Small White, Green-veined White,
