Pied (above) and Spotted (below) Flycatchers
Catching up (but not necessarily in the right order)... So after returning from our summer in the States, I'd only a couple of days before a five-day trip to Spurn (and one of those was a long but brilliant day on the boat -
see here).
Setting off from York in the darkness of Monday morning, it looked like I'd a working week ahead of pleasant, favourable conditions within which I could show off the best of Spurn in its early autumn glory; five excellent days and 20 odd happy clients later, and it's fair to say that came to pass.
Merlin (above) and Yellow Wagtail on the beach (below)
Of those five days, only one was hard work on account of the conditions (and that was a strong wind, not rain), and we spent pretty much all of it in warm sunshine and under blue skies, prioritising sun cream over long sleeves (not something I'm used to at Spurn!).
Pied Flycatchers - stars of the trip
Highlights included early autumn passerines such as
Spotted and
Pied Flycatchers, Redstarts, Tree Pipits, Whinchats, Yellow Wagtails, Lesser and
Common Whitethroats and lots of lemon yellow
Willow Warblers; Caspian, Yellow-legged and throngs of
Mediterranean Gulls among the flocks on the wetlands;
Spotted Flycatcher, photobombed by Willow Warbler (above); Red Underwing (below)
A
Rosefinch among a variety of migrants in the hand at Church Field (thanks Paul, Simon and Rob); daily
Merlins hunting the bounty; substantial movements of
hirundines and
terns on several days; wildfowl including
Pintail, early returning
Teal and
Wigeon, and many hundreds of
Shelduck;
... and last but certainly not least, waders of wonderful variety and abundance. The Humber and the wetlands are always good for shorebirds, but our late August timing allows for fantastic views of a long list of species, many in their hundreds or even thousands, and many in their fine breeding dress, straight back from the Arctic.
Whinchat (above); spot the Common Redstart (below)
Of these,
Grey Plovers, both godwits, scarcer species such as
Spotted Redshank, commoner ones such as
Knot and
Sanderling, and many others were frankly worth the trip alone, but - this being Spurn - there was a final surprise in store....
... just as I was about to break for lunch with my last group early on Friday afternoon, the radio crackled with the dulcid but wholly unexpected message of a
Stilt Sandpiper on Beacon Ponds! I gave my team a choice, and they chose the 'sod lunch, let's go' option, and within twenty minutes or so, we were enjoying the slightly surreal sight of a cracking adult summer-plumaged Stilt Sandpiper feeding and cat-napping among a wonderful range of waders that included many
Dunlin, Sanderling, Ringed Plovers, Curlew Sandpipers, Greenshank, Green and
Common Sandpipers and more.
Cliff, the non-pariah
Quite the finale to a wonderful week - and lucky for me, I'd soon be back for a long weekend at #Migfest....
Although I'm giving the fundraising a break this year (lucky you!), I'm still running more than ever - in fact i'm trying to break my annual record this year for kilometres clocked, and I'm on schedule so far. This usually means fitting in runs when i'm working away, and despite guiding all day being pretty knackering, I love running at Spurn. In the time slots available between guiding and dinner I managed two trail runs, one 9km and one 6km - the first up to Easington via the Beacon Ponds bank and then to the breach via the beach and back, and the latter including a Pied Fly that hopped up inches in front of me on Beacon Lane.
Merlin (above) and Yellow Wagtail on the beach (below)
Pied Flycatchers - stars of the trip
Spotted Flycatcher, photobombed by Willow Warbler (above); Red Underwing (below)
Whinchat (above); spot the Common Redstart (below)
