Thursday 3 October 2013

Piling on the Wind

The wind was horrendous at Spurn on Wednesday, so there was no ringing to observe.  We walked around the Kilnsea area instead.  In the hedgerow we glimpsed the rufous tail of a Redstart on a couple of occasion, but we couldn't get on to the bird.  The Crown and Anchor car park yielded first a female and then a male Blackcap.  Then we could hear high-pitched calls around us, and we found a Goldcrest.  As usual with this species it was quite confiding.

Moulting Male Redstart similar to the one found by Eileen
 Gokldcrest (c) 2013 Tony Robinson
 Record shot of Spotted Flycatcher (c) 2013 Tony Robinson
 Record shot of Redstart (c) 2013 Tony Robinson
 Redstart & Lesser Whitethroat
We crossed the road to the edge of the river, and all but one of us managed to dodge the numerous piles of dog mess.  There were 2 very confiding Dunlin looking for food on the mudflats with Redshank further away, a single Curlew and a few Ringed Plovers.  Then someone noticed a Spotted Flycatcher in the garden of the large house on the seashore.  It posed well and went on several violent insect hunting sorties before returning to its favourite artificial perch.  A few minutes later a young Restart was seen, and this was observed for several minutes as it too hunted for its insect prey.  A Yellow-Browed Warbler may have been heard briefly on the return to the car park, but that was all.  
Firecrest (c) 2013 Tony Robinson
 ditto
 Jack Snipe
 ditto
 Meadow Pipit
Some of the morning contingent remained and managed to photograph a Firecrest and a Jack Snipe.  The afternoon group in addition to the morning birds saw a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Jack Snipes and a Ring Ouzel.  It was a red-letter day for Carol who soon gave the maximum score, and that was before we saw the Jack Snipe & the Ring Ouzel. 

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