Spurn Week 5

Monday 11th July

Back on mornings, meaning early starts but hopefully a few more birds given I'm now working with the tide. The waders were a very similar set to those that have been around previously, but in greater numbers. Dunlin were well over 2000. I counted 2390 but my counting in tens is probably somewhat off and there could well have been more. Other species were much easier to count; 21 Knot, 6 Sanderling, 15 Redshank.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the morning was when a Pale-bellied Brent Goose flew in and started chilling with the waders. Its July? What even! The bird was shot to bits, and chatting to some other birders at Spurn it seems to be a 1st winter age, so probably just stuck around. I put it out on twitter and it soon became apparent that it had spent the morning traveling down the coast, first seen at Whitburn up in Durham.

After my shift I headed down to Numpties where the was a few things moving. Sadly I missed the bee-eater but I did get nice views of Swifts and was a more productive use of the afternoon than a power nap.

-Dunlin

-Pale-bellied Brent Goose

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Knot, Sanderling, Dunlin, Redshank, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Common Tern, Grey Heron, Mediterranean Gull, Sanderling, Little Tern, Wigeon, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Brent Goose, Little Egret, Sedge Warbler, Bar-tailed Godwit, Curlew, Swift, Sand Martin, 

Tuesday 12th July

Very much a similar affair on ponds. Dunlin numbers seem to have dropped but as the high tide time now matches perfectly with the time most dog walkers are on the beach that is hardly surprising. A few nice things around the ponds; a Mediterranean Gull flew through, as did 6 Little Gulls. I finally spotted the Gadwall female in long-bank ditch, but only with a solitary chick. I was kind of hoping for a few more than that.

In the evening when heading out to my caravan I was stunned but thrilled to find a Hedgehog on the step up to the door. It did not run or anything, just sat there despite me basically being able to touch it. Its not a species I see very often, my last been also at Spurn two years ago. Its also the first time I have ever photographed one. What an awesome little critter.

-Hedgehog

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Golden Plover, Sanderling, Mediterranean Gull, Knot, Little Tern, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Redshank, Dunlin, Little Gull, Gadwall, Pheasant, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Sanderling, Gannet, Magpie, Carrion Crow, Reed Bunting, Skylark, 

Wednesday 13th July

Another morning struggling to get out of bed. Today was an excellent morning for birds though, not least because I actually saw the two Little Tern chicks that have hatched within the dunes. At least something going right in the project at last.

Today's main highlight was something rather unexpected really, it being the first one at Spurn this year. Mid-morning, scanning through the terns and I stumbled across the most plumage perfect Roseate Tern I could have ever imagined. Its a species I have seen before, but never properly, so to finally see one on the deck, through the scope was really something. And although I hate the term, it is a 'self-found'. It was really pleasing for me to be able to nail the bird at first sight and then not have to doubt myself until it was confirmed. Sadly I was the only observer, as after I managed a few record shots all the terns got flushed and the Roseate flew off north. What a cracking bird.

Today was a good day for birds. The Brent Goose reappeared in the early hours, as did the Little Ringed Plover during the late morning. Sadly the waders were traumatized by the presence of a Peregrine which came through the colony three times. By the third visit there were no waders left, despite it being high tide, such is the impact that the predator had.

In the afternoon I headed down the canal and onto clubleys field to look for dragonflies but failed to find any. In fact the only thing from the whole walk was a smart Barn Owl perched up on a fence post with a mouse. Aside from that it was a very quiet afternoon.

-Roseate Tern

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Redshank, Dunlin, Grey Heron, Greenshank, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Brent Goose, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Knot, Sanderling, Roseate Tern, Little-ringed Plover, Mallard, Mute Swan, Peregrine, Kestrel, Sedge Warbler, Skylark, Black-headed Gull, Cormorant, Swift, Swallow, Sand Martin, Common Scoter, Bar-tailed Godwit, Gadwall, Reed Bunting, 

Thursday 14th July

A fairly quiet day at the ponds, although still over 2000 Dunlin came in. I sadly failed to find anything massively exciting among them. The best of it were 4 Sanderling and a Turnstone. Other birds around the ponds included 6 Arctic Tern, the first Juvenile Sandwich Tern of the year and a Barn Owl early morning. That aside, it was very much a similar affair to the last few mornings.

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Sanderling, Turnstone, Little Grebe, Redshank, Little Tern, Dunlin, Arctic Tern, Common Tern, Greenshank, Barn Owl, Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Herring Gull, Gannet, Common Scoter, Skylark, Linnet, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Black-headed Gull, 

Friday 15th July

Another day with similar patterns of species seen. Again, 2000 Dunlin came in but I once again unable to find anything lurking among them which was rare. A Golden Plover flyover was the only real difference in the variety of wader species on ponds this morning. 

There were up to 10 Common Terns around the ponds, plus 5 Sandwich Terns, although no sign of yesterdays Juvenile. Little Tern numbers continued to be high at around 70 birds at high tide, all of them sat around doing not very much when they should be breeding.

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Common Tern, Dunlin, Redshank, Little Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit, Greenshank, Sandwich Tern, Black-headed Gull, Sanderling, Ringed Plover, Oystercatcher, Pheasant, Swift, Swallow, House Martin, Sand Martin, Golden Plover, Herring Gull, Common Gull,

Saturday 16th July

Today really was exciting, with a pretty impressive movement of Little Gulls over the ponds. In total 161 birds flew across the ponds to the Humber, mainly in flocks ranging from 20-50 birds. It really was quite impressive and nice to be sat on long bank just clicking them as they came through.

-Little Gull

Other species remained very much the same, although 5 Wigeon at the south end were obviously new. Now up to 3 Grey Herons are frequenting the ponds, and an adult Mediterranean Gull flew north. Dunlin numbers seemed to be down a little bit, with only 1500 coming in, but the tide was not as high and it is possible that they may have roosted in the spartina along the edge of the Humber instead.

Species List:

Beacon Ponds: Little Tern, Little Gull, Greenshank, Common Tern, Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Grey Heron, Little Egret, Herring Gull, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Carrion Crow, Great Black-backed Gull, Linnet, Skylark, Reed Bunting, Bar-tailed Godwit, Yellow Wagtail, Black-headed Gull, Common Gull, Whimbrel, Redshank, Dunlin, Kestrel, Wigeon, Mediterranean Gull, Little Grebe, Cormorant,

Sunday 17th July

After the excitement of yesterdays little gull movement, it was perhaps surprising that not a single little gull was seen today. In fact today returned to the much quieter state of ponds, with not much actually happening. A Common Sandpiper was nice, and both Sanderling and Ringed Plover numbers seemed to have increased. 3 of the Grey Partridge family were also seen as I moved through the dunes to the hut.

Still, this will be the last time I get to do any proper birding up at ponds for a while, as I moved onto night shifts tonight. What a pleasant treat thats going to be.

Sightings List:

Beacon Ponds: Turnstone, Greenshank, Common Sandpiper, Barn Owl, Little Grebe, Bar-tailed Godwit, Sanderling, Arctic Tern, Ringed Plover, Grey Partridge, Whimbrel, Sandwich Tern, Redshank, Herring Gull, Common Gull, Reed Bunting,

Spurn Day 28 - LIFER ALERT

Its not been long since my last spurn lifer, but this is one of the big ones. I had wanted to see 2 species when I was coming to spurn, Red-Veined Darter and today's lifer. Of course this species is more of a right place, right time kind of job, but being at Spurn I knew I had a pretty decent chance of finding one.

The sound of an alarm is one of the worst sounds ever. Waking while still dark, in summer is a painful experience! To make it worse is the fact that it was raining for my walk to the hide. I had to dodge the toads again along the cliff top path, though this has become pretty standard now.

I got a bit of a shock along my walk though, and it set the standard for the day pretty high to say the least. At the campsite at the bottom of Beacon Lane I spotted under the lamp-post a Hedgehog happily scurrying. I could not take it in at first, its been so long since I last saw one. It wandered towards the hedge, but it did not move quickly as though it was alarmed, and I was reasonably close. I tried to get some kind of shot with my compact camera but naturally I failed. It reached the fence and that's where I left it, no point harassing the poor thing when really it needs to be getting to bed.

-Hedgehog

So the standard for the day was already quite high, a species I can only recall ever seeing once before on my walk to work. Thats where the fun stops really, I got to work in the rain, I was wrecked. I crashed in the chair and power-napped. I actually had to leave quite early to get back for a meeting about the tern project, so at half 8 I set up to leave. There was not much going on with the ponds, the Oyks kept making a racket but I could find no source for their discontent, besides other Oyks.

On the way back to the warren I spotted a Sanderling on the beach which was quite approachable and allowed me to grab some shots of it should anything else fail to materialise during the day.

-Sanderling

The meeting went well and by half 11 I was ready to roll on back to the hut to complete my shift. It was at this point that I received a radio message informing me of '3 clouded yellows on beacon lane'. Now I have to go up that lane to get to my shift, and I need clouded yellow, so I suppose I had better make a move. I think I reached beacon lane in my record fastest time. I then wandered up the lane slowly trying to pick out any yellow butterflies. I failed up to a point. The message had said that they were by the pond, so when I got to the pond and there was not one I assumed they must have moved on.

Of course its always at this point that they reveal themselves, and so it was today, as a yellow butterfly flew past me, over the pond banking and was not seen again. Such was my luck for today. However, I had plenty of time and decided to go for luck on the rough ground on the far side of the pond, as it looked like ideal habitat for them.

\It was a wise decision, as I managed to track down 2 Clouded Yellows in the area. Now a new problem arose, the butterflies seemed to have a mutual agreement that landing was no an option and proceed to fly all over the place but not land anywhere. In the end I decided my best option was to grab some record shots of them in flight, awful though they may be.

I grabbed a few before the butterflies moved on leaving me with only a few Common Blue and Wall Browns on the scrub. I wandered back but on the way picked up 3 more Clouded Yellows, and one of these had obviously not received the memo about not landing as it alighted multiple times of various flowers, though not for any extended time periods I hasten to add.

I swapped lenses and made to grab some photos of him. I made some decent attempts but they always seem to have some angle on them and were not profile, though some came close. In the end though I was pretty happy with my results, given what I had resigned myself to after the first few.

-Clouded Yellow

So that is another Lifer for me at Spurn and one that I had really wanted. Its been a long time coming, a big gap in my 'I-Spy butterflies and moths' (50 points). They were far brighter in flight than I had expected. I had thought they would be a shaded white butterfly, similar to brimstone, but not at all, they were a deep yellow and even looked orange at some points. I think its safe to say they did not disappoint me.

Sadly the afternoon did not live up to the billing of the butterflies. The 3 Little Grebe had remained on the pond, while an adult summer plumaged Grey Plover had added to the cast too, as well as a Turnstone. The real highlights were the Little Terns. Today I found one of the really young chicks, probably the last one. It was little more than a brown blob of fluff, but my time spent watching it was sadly cut short by an oncoming thunderstorm.

I could see it building on the horizon but when it hit it hard. There were numerous lightening flashes and thunder rolls, making for a spectacular change in scenery. The first storm was followed by a small second storm, what a way to finish the shift off. While the sky was so dark I decided to try and photograph some white birds against the dark background. I got some reasonable success when a Common Gull flew past.

-Common Gull

And that just about wraps up today. The walk home yielded very little but that is hardly surprising given the caliber of storms that had just gone over. I called it a night early due to the fact that I am just so tired, so no sea-watching tonight.

The Daily Oystercatcher

I was interested to see how the oystercatchers would react to the thunderstorm but I could not find them before it started to throw it down. I heard oystercatchers alarming during the storm but it was not the family I had been following. After the storm I had a another look and found them in the top corner. There was still thunder rolling but they did not seem bothered at all, with two birds sleeping and another two feeding during the whole thing.

Species List:
Beacon Ponds: Little Egret, Little Tern, Sandwich Tern, Oystercatcher, Ringed Plover, Dunlin, Swallow, Sand Martin, Arctic Skua, Gannet, Common Tern, Black-Tailed Godwit, Meadow Pipit, Linnet, Mute Swan, Black-Headed Gull, Common Gull, Woodpigeon, Little Grebe, Grey Plover, Cormorant, Sanderling, Redshank, Whitethroat, Willow warbler, Blackbird, Great Tit, House Martin, House Sparrow, Sedge Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Common Teal, Greenshank, Herring Gull, Turnstone, Grey Heron, Grey Seal, Common Lizard, Clouded Yellow, Large White, Small White, Gatekeeper, Common Blue, Wall Brown, Meadow Brown, Emperor,