Pat Haven & Spurn

I had a couple of trips at the weekend both early morning starts in glorious sunshine.
I had visited Pat Haven during the week and noticed a lot of waders congregating at the entrance to the lagoon at high tide, so it was here I headed on Saturday morning.
Being a relatively small tide it didn't reallly flood into the lagoon and after a mile and a half walk in semi darkness followed by a perilous walk over mud and weed covered rocks I was glad to get laid out on the rocks.
It wasn't long before the obligatory redshanks landed in front of me followed by a few dunlin.
There was plenty of birds feeding on the tide line and as it flooded they got ever closer.
Behind me there was a small rock pool and the birds were also landing on here as well, it was whilst I was looking in there that 3 little egrets landed about 10m in front of me.
Hardly daring to move I managed a few shots before they moved on to the next pool.
I think they were a little wary of me being there and felt more comfortable a bit further away.
By now it was nearly high tide and the waders were coming in thick and fast.
Flocks of redshank,dunlin and knot were whizzing above my head some only a metre away.
There was one solitary avocet and disappointingly no curlew sandpipers.
It was brilliant gettng so close to the birds without them knowing I was there.
On Sunday morning I headed off to Spurn and with no major rarities reported I had snow bunting as my target bird.
I started at the point at first, a couple of shots of the lapland bunting and some nice views of a juvenile wheatear on the Point beach.
Quite a few stonechat plus some common migrants but on the whole pretty quiet.
I went back towards the Warren in hope of seeing the barred warbler and almost immediately I was treated to very close but biref flight views.
It was here that I heard the news of a very obliging snow bunting along the cliff top and after a 5minute walk I found the bird on the cliff edge.
It was very obliging and looked pretty settled feeding on seed heads on the cliff top.
Pretty chuffed with the shots and a better weeked for photography than for the quality of the birds.
Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Snow Bunting

Wheatear

Lapland Bunting

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Little Egret

Greenshank

Greenshank

Avocet

Redshank

Autumn at Spurn

Been down to sammy's Point and Spurn a couple of times this weekend.The first time was on Friday night with the woodchat shrike in mind.
During the day there had been all sorts reported but with limited time (about an hour before losing the light) I elected to go to Sammys.
The woodchat shrike posed beautifully straight away, so within 10 minutes I had some decent shots.My attention turned to the paddock east of the car park.There was an extremely obliging spotted flycatcher that posed nicely in good light.
Also nearby was redstart,wheatear and snow bunting.
I left looking forward to the next trip,
We had planned a family day out for Saturday and I watched the pager nervously as scarce rare after scarce rare flashed up for Spurn.
Sunday morning came and after a clear night I feared the worst.It was my intention to start at spurn Point and work my way up, however a flooded road put paid to that plan.was it an omen?
I went to Sammy's Point and the woodchat shrike was still there I walked right up to the last set of bushes towards kilnsea with only a couple of gulls on the way.The trip back wasn't much more productive with only a few meadow pipit and a small flock of golden plover in an adjacent field.It was only when I got back to the first paddock that the birds began to show with a couple of wheatear,spotted flycatcher, whitethroat and a few more redstart.I managed a few shots of these before heading towards Spurn.
Had a quick look on canal scrape and the surrounding area, plenty of birders but not a lot bout (the earlier reported common rosefinch had vanished).
A quick look on the cliff top opposite canal scrape hide produced a pair of stonechat.
The radio crackled with the news that the gate had been re-opened so I headed towards the point, a brief look for the firecrest yielded a biref glimpse and the sound of it calling.
On towards the point again it looked quiet but as I got to the green beacon the lapland bunting was sat amongst the grasses only 20ft away.
News of a Richards Pipit came over the airwaves so I made my way off the point and stopped of at post 62 (parked at chalk bank and walked south).I headed to post 62 for the reported barred warbler,and it was while walking I noticed a large pipit amongst the meadow pipits with a strange call almost simultaneously 'richards pipit over sheep field' came on the radio.It landed briefely in the field, then on the fence then went onto the beach, a quick look over the top and it was up again, this time heading on its way south.Wow a lifer!
No sign of the barred warbler but plenty of common migrants including whinchat and more redstart.
On the way back to the car a pair of brightly coloured willow warblers caught my eye.
I called in at the crown and anchor car park on the way up, again very quiet so went back to Sammy's Point.
The woodchat shrike had moved into the paddock area and became slightly more elusive spending more time in the bushes.
The common migrants were still in abundance and a med gull came in off the Humber.
All in all a very entertaining day, not as many rares as hoped but still some good birds.
On final note, I must commend the staff at the YWT for controlling a huge volume of people with very little fuss, made the day more enjoyable.

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Woodchat Shrike

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Spotted Flycatcher

Redstart

Redstart

Redstart

lapland Bunting

Whitethroat

Wheatear

Willow warbler

Golden Plover

Pat Haven

I had an early morning trip to Pat Haven yesterday, getting there before dawn the only birds on the way were a couple of barn owls.
A few gulls on the lagoon including black headed,common and lbb.
Not too many waders to start but plenty of redshank.Ringed plover,dunlin and knot were around but in much reduced numbers than of late.
A pair of little egrets were fishing around the edge of the lagoon and they were joined for a while by a heron.
A couple of vociferous greenshank roosted for a time and a single black tailed godwit kept in the deeper part of the lagoon.
Lots of shellduck appeared near high tide along with a single cormorant and 4 teal.
A bit disappointing really as there was no sign of any curlew sandpipers,ruff golden or grey plover or anything else remotely interesting.
Might be the last visit of the summer.

Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Redshank


Black Tailed Godwit


Black Tailed Godwit


Greenshank


Greenshank


Dunlin


Grey Heron


Little Egret


Little Egret


Shellduck


Teal

Bank Holiday Birds

After finally getting my computer sorted, I've managed to update the blog with pics from the weekend.
I had quite a bit of spare time so managed a few trips here and there highlights were as follows.
saturday-Spurn arctic skua,great skua,manx shearwater,hen harrier,merlin,marsh harrier, whinchat, wheatear.
Sunday-Spurn spotted flycatcher,
Sunday-Pat Haven Curlew sandpiper,avocet,common buzzard,marsh harrier,kingfisher,golden plover,greenshank.
Monday-Curlew sandpiper plus common waders.

Some nice photo opportunities as the birds fed around the edge of the lagoon.