Hilda's Muriel

On Thursday we had a walk along the Humber estuary. As we waited for Chris in the car park plenty of Fieldfare and a few Redwing were spotted collapsing into the hawthorn bushes around the fort. The miniature lighthouses were flashing, presumably because of poor visibility, although its the brightest its been all week. Alan suddenly spotted in the far distance between the 2 lighthouses that the air was swirling with birds. They were thousands of Golden Plovers. There were a few Curlew at the waters edge and 6 Wigeon, but the birds were in rather short supply.

No Comment necessary (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Wigeon (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Golden Plover (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Ditto 

 Grey Plover (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

At the tip of the old flood bank we saw quite a variety of waders. Jean spotted & correctly identified a Turnstone, but there were also a few Bar-tailed Godwits, a dozen Redshank, half a dozen Dunlin, and 30 Lapwing. We had just started to head back when I spotted a Swallow, then another and another. In total 6 Swallows were heading east.

 Turnstones (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Curlew (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Curlew

 The 'Maybe' with Humber Bridge

 Illumination

 The Grimsby Tower with Golden Plovers

In the afternoon the tide was coming in, but was still a long way out when we visited. We counted 150 Black-tailed Godwit, 112 Knot, and 8 Bar-tailed Godwit. We were standing near the breach when suddenly I spotted a Peregrine steaming in from the south-west. It made a bee-line for the Golden Plovers, and although they took some time to see it they all escaped. This remained the case even when a second smaller Peregrine see spotted by Eric all joined in on the action. After several stoops and swift changes of direction they failed to catch a single bird. However, one Peregrine moved quickly north, as it has spotted that a Merlin had just caught a small bird. The Merlin relinquished its catch, but the Peregrines seemed a bit fussy about picking something up from the estuary mud, and it took 3 attempts before it carried away the prize.




On the way back a Pipit flew up from the main path making an unusual 'tsskk' call. It was larger and paler than a Meadow Pipit, but still seemed to have white in the tail and in the wing. Although a similar colour to a Skylark its wings were much narrower than the large wing area of a Skylark. On returning home and playing the sounds of a Richard's Pipit and an Olive-Backed Pipit, the latter seemed a much better fit. Hopefully, someone is going to check out the area tomorrow, to see if they can relocate this intriguing bird.  Finally, in a Hawthorn bush near the entrance to the fort we found a Goldcrest, although it was shy about coming into the open!

Peregrine - the bane of Golden Plovers (c) 2012 Vince Cowell

 Merlin on Mudflats

Goldcrest

Falling out of the Mist

The mist and a weather front bringing drizzle forced a large number of Scandinavian migrants to land on Spurn this morning.  Before I arrived there had already been reports of over 1,400 Bramblings, and thousands of Redwings, Fieldfare, Blackbirds, plus hundreds of Song Thrushes, dozens of Ring Ouzels, and at least 1 Hawfinch.  

I stayed behind a mound of marram grass for over an hour to try & get pictures of the 200+ Bramblings near Post 20.  The mist made it very difficult, but it was possible to get something in the end.  At one stage dozens of Bramblings were feeding alongside a single Turnstone, whilst other Turnstones were sharing their beach with Redwings!

Early indications from @Spurnbirdobs on twitter are:

Conservative totals are:

Fieldfare 10,000+

Redwing 21,000+

Song Thrush 900+

Robin 700+

Ring Ouzel 57

Hawfinch 1

Although these figures haven't been stated yet I suspect there were will have been well in excess of 10,000 Blackbirds & 2000 Bramblings.

Bramblings

 Ditto

 Ditto in flight

 Ditto

 Ditto

 Redwing & Turnstone

A Tale of Two Site-ies

Today started off very badly just as forecast with heavy driving rain. The participants arrived in good time, and remained ensconced in their cars as the rain lashed down. From the look on everyone's faces they didn't expect it to clear up before the class was about to start. However, just as the class was due to begin the rain suddenly stopped and we were able to go ahead as planned. The weather continued to improve and after only 30 mins a large patch of blue appeared. Several 'students' had to pay the extortionate parking fees before we shared cars to a reserve hidden behind a housing estate. 




On arrival we repaired to the large 'L-shaped' hide. The best bird was a Black-tailed Godwit, but after half an hour an Avocet flew in. It's the latest I ever remember seeing one in Yorkshire. In the afternoon a Curlew was also seen from this hide. Other birds included several Teal, which had emerged from their eclipse plumage, but after checking thoroughly we couldn't find a single Snipe, which is normally common on this reserve at this time of the year.

Oystercatchers

 Ditto

 Turnstone

 Avocet (c) 2012 Aileen Urquhart

 Black-tailed Godwit (c) 2012 Aileen Urquhart

A visit to the smaller hide resulted in a few Wigeon, and a pair of Gadwall, and a few Tree Sparrows at the feeding station. However, the finest performance was put on by a female Sparrowhawk being mobbed by several Crows and Magpies.

In the morning we went on to the cliff tops where we added Guillemots, Gannets, Shags and Cormorants, and several exhausted Redwings arrived from the sea running the gauntlet of a hunting Peregrine. In the afternoon we walked on the beach where we enjoyed close views of Oystercatchers, Turnstones and Redshank. There were no other waders, which was rather surprising and the lack of Red-throated Divers, Eiders and Grey Seals was another disappointment.

Carrion Crow (too much white bread)(c) 2012 Aileen Urquhart

 Sparrowhawk being mobbed (c) 2012 Aileen Urquhart

On Tuesday we were able to visit our planned location: Tophill Low, but we did so in the teeth of a ferocious wind. A hurricane hadn't been forecast for our visit, just as it hadn't 25 years before a previous non-existent hurricane, but the winds were certainly very strong. This can be seen in the water flying out of 'O' reservoir. Highlights included 2 female Sparrowhawks sparring over D reservoir for 5 minutes in the morning & 2 Chiffchaffs in the afternoon. The site exhibited strong apartheid tendencies with only Gadwall on North Lagoon, only Teal on South Marsh East, and only Tufted Ducks on 'O' Reservoir. However, there was plenty of racial integration at Watton Borrow Pits, which held several more species including Great Crested Grebe, Wigeon, Curlew, Cormorants and a few others.  One morning participant remained behind and was able to photograph a Willow Tit on the feeders 

 Great Crested Grebe 

 Great Crested Grebe

 Common Frog

 Drinking Water Blowing Away

 Record Shot of Grey Wagtail 

2 Female Sparrowhawks Sparring (c) 2012 Maggie Bruce

 Willow Tit (c) 2012 Maggie Bruce

Raddy, Steady, Go!

Yesterday morning we had just arrived at the point when the call came that a Radde's Warbler was to be released in 15 minutes, did my group want to see it?  Bearing in mind it was a bird none of them had even heard of, and it didn't appear to be mentioned in their bird books, the answer rather unsurprisingly was yes!  We only just made it back in time, but the "student's" were very well pleased with their experience.  After the bird's release Paul answered questions about the bird's origin, age, and the flight path which it should have been following.

The rest of the day was spent finding the best birds that were available.  The afternoon highlight was probably watching the wading birds at Chalk Bank.

Radde's Warbler (c) 2012 Phil Todd

[plus Janet's chin]

 Radde's Warbler

 Ditto

 Radde's Warbler (underside) (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Little Egret (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Stonechat (c) 2012 Richard Whateley

 Herring Gull

 Brent Geese

 Sanderling

 Turnstones