White Winged Black Tern

I went for another look at the white winged black tern at Hornsea Mere tonight. It was a better night than last night, the wind wasn't so strong and the evening sunshine gave perfect light.
The tern was up close as soon as I arrived and kept feeding close for about half an hour before making its way to the other side of the mere where it alighted briefly.It then made its way back and put on another display before returning to the north side.As far as value for money goes this bird has to be to value, close views quite stunning to look at and a varied display of hunting techniques make this one of the birds of the year for me so far.
I will be back again if it sticks.

Autumn Comes Early

Some favourable winds on the East Coast produced some pretty decent birds over the weekend. Fairly steady reports of scarce migrants on Saturday promised a good day on Sunday.
I popped down to Patrington haven for an hor on Saturday night it was fairly quiet but 7 ruff and a group of roosting little egrets made things interesting.
On Sunday I set off for Spurn with the intention of starting at the point and working my way back up.
This plan was scuppered when news of a citrine wagtail had me shooting back up to the warren.
Initially giving brief views on the spartina off the warren it soon headed towards canal scrape. I got into the hide in time for some decent views but then it got spooked and disappeared north.There were also 5 little egrets, 3 green sandpipers and a wood sandpiper on canal scrape.
From here I went to see a red backed shrike, this was again distant but showing well.
A report of an ictrine warbler at the point had me heading back south but a quick scan around didn't promise much.
Another icterine warbler was reported at cliff farm so being nearly time to go I thought I would call in. No sign at first but an appearance by a pied flycatcher was quickly followed up by an appearance from the Icky.2 lifers in the day!
I saw a report of a white winged black tern at Hornsea so had a ride out after tea with my daughter. Initially there was no sign but after about 20 minutesthe tern showed vey well down to about 30m.Finished up with 3 lifers.
I've had worse days;)

Distant Dotterel

I was pleased to finally add adotterel image to my collection the other night.
The first i heard of it was on Tuesday but I couldn't get there so fortunately it hung around and I was able to catch up with it on Wednesday.
The bird was feeding in a tilled field between Tansterne and West carlton which basically is in the middle of nowhere, I was lucky enough to arrive at the site with birders already on it.
It kept its distance while i was there and I would say the nearest it came was about 70m.
The light was good and coming from the right direction so all in all a pleasing nights work.

Kingfisher

I thought i'd spend a couple of hours at a local spot this evening looking for kingfishers.
I only had to wait 20 minutes until this fellow turned up.
He disappeared for a while then came back and stayed longer catching a single fish. he tried for another and failed and that seemed to signal his time to go.
Nice.