Typically Spurned...

After last weeks disappointing West coast trip, I can’t ignore the East coast. So I am back at Spurn Point, TA4011, and it’s full of rarities. At the very end of the reserve, where the sea meets the Humber, is an absolute haven for migrant birds. As I get my equipment from the car, a female and male Black Redstart, have a little game with the frustrated photographers, ‘Now you see me, now you don’t’. But what a stunning bird the male is, for me this bird is just as striking in colour as a Kingfisher, all though it only shows three colours.(check out the photo). Spurn Point is a very dense jungle, where you are at disadvantage to see birds. All the vegetation is used to good effect by there birds as cover and resting point. You could hide farsands of birds here without seeing any of them. From every bush comes a bird call, as you near it, it all goes quiet when you are close. Today we have a Very rare Dusky warbler, a few feet away, A Pallas’ Warbler in that bush to our right, a woodcock flying behind us, And with the southerly wind, comes more birds by the minute.
Elsewhere on the reserve, Rare buntings have turned up, In a ploughed field, 3 Lapland buntings play hide and seek. In the next field a very rare for the east coast, Hooded Crow turns up. Bramblings are common too. A Shorelark was lonesome on the beach. The only non productive area was the sea, only 5 Brent geese seen flying south.
A truly typically fantastic day at Spurn in October with loads of common and rare birds too SEE everywhere you walked. Except I only got to see the black redstarts. How frustrating is that! On the way home, I managed to ‘dip out’ on another Pallas’ Warbler at Holmpton.
178 – Black Redstart.