Sunday 18 April 2010

Spring has sprung!

I had a couple of very contrasting mornings at Spurn this weekend.
saturday morning had a cold westerlt wind blowing much stronger than the 10mph forecast.
I started at Sammy's Point and managed a brief view of a ring ouzel as it flew north.
Then on to canal scrape nothing doing there apart from a few chiff chaffs and willow warblers.
Went down to Spurn Point and hardly any birds around the parade ground, but did see a glaucous gull flying south, so went back up to the crown for a reported firecrest which I saw albeit fleeting.
Back to canal scrape and managed some distant views of the 'continental' stonechat and by now things had warmed up slightly in the bushes I saw my first sedge warbler of the year.
headed for home with a few more for the year list.
This morning was far more springlike.I started again at sammy's Point and saw a lesser whitethroat and whimbrel and one solitary wheatear.
Down to canal scrape and saw another lesser whitethroat, someone reported a ring ouzel back at Sammy's so this being my target bird for the day I went back.
No sign where it had been reported, but I did see my first cuckoo of the year.On the way back I saw a large blckbird feeding in one of the paddocksand sure enough it was the RO.
It was always keeping its distance but I managed a coiple of half decent shots, later it was joined by a yellow wagtail.
A good few other common migrants were reported today including grasshopper warbler, whinchat, redstart, firecrest and black redstart.
At last some decent birds to look at, hopefully something big soon.








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