Well it was here, a full days birding at Spurn all for the 1st migration festival ever held. I was booked on the sea watching in the morning and noted from the sea watching hide Manx Shearwaters, Bonxies, several Sooty Shearwaters, 5 Common Scoter, loads of Gannets, 1 Marsh Harrier heading south, Fulmar, 2 Red-throated Divers, Sandwich Terns and a Whimbrel plus 2 Whinchat that were perched on the fence behind the sea watching hide. From there it was back to camp for a bit of brecky. Now, without going into to much detail, I had a nightmare the night before with the inflatable bed so I had to shoot off and sort something out. Once back news soon broke of the Common Rosefinch that ha been trapped near the pub. I shot round the corner and was soon on a female/juvenile Common Rosefinch (lifer 325). After that I had. Walk around the site when news came out about a Red-backed Shrike nearby. I was soon on site and the bird was perched on a fence before flying over to a barbed wire fence then it flew to the ground, picked up a bumble bee, flew back to the bared wire fence and put the bee on one of the barbs. Brilliant, watching the shrike take advantage of man using the fence as his larder. After that high I decided to take advantage of the lighthouse being open at the tip of the spit and climb up to the top of the lighthouse and looked out over the spit. Totally amazing experience but I did not like going back down!!!!!
Th rest of the day was taken up with dipping on a Wryneck and a guided walk around Sammy's Point. Birds added throughout the day were Garden Warbler, Yellow Wagtail, Black and Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruff, Greenshank, several Wheatear, Med Gull and Spotted Redshank. Oh and about 500+ Redshank roosting on a pool at high tide. Cracking.
Free camping and access all around Spurn plus guides on hand and some good birds, not a bad way to spend a day.
Great blog Stu :)
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