Monday, September 9, 2019

8th September 2019 - Day 3 of Spurn Migfest and Fairburn Ings RSPB

This morning we again headed back to the seawtaching hide for 6am and stayed till 09:15, there was far less movement today but the highlights were a Long-tailed Skua (UK tick), two Arctic Skua, one Great Skua, two Little Gulls, 31 Red-throated Divers, 63 Teal, two Wigeon, 17 Common Scoter and a flock of nine Grey Herons in off. A Green Sandpiper also flew north over The Warren.


Spurn Seawatching Hide

On our way back to the car there were c250 Golden Plover on The Humber. Again news from elsewhere was quiet apart from a Pied Flycatcher in Kilnsea Churchyard which we went to look for, we managed to find it but it was pretty elusive staying high up in the canopy. In the Crown & Anchor pub car park were a Lesser Whitethroat and a Willow Warbler whilst a Sparrowhawk flew over causing some commotion amongst the hirundines that were overhead. The last thing walk of our weekend was a look along Vicars Lane in Easington this produced a single Spotted Flycatcher and a Chiffchaff whilst overhead two Meadow Pipits went south. Around Easington Gas Terminal were a Great Spotted Woodpecker seen by Max and lots of House Sparrows and a single Greenfinch in the Siberian Accentor garden. 

We left Spurn around midday and typically a Barred Warbler was trapped at The Warren just as we were approaching Hull. We decided to not turn round but instead to go to Fairburn Ings RSPB near Leeds and have a look for Willow Tits. We arrived after about 1.5hrs and the place was heaving with day trippers most of whom were not interested in birds and were accompanied by screaming children, I was worried that there was going to be too much disturbance but it proved not to be. After a little while we managed to locate one Willow Tit which showed nicely near the first dipping pond around the discovery trail, although I didn't manage to get a photo. A bit further on there were some feeders where we obtained great views of Tree Sparrows and other common garden birds. We had a quick look on the main lake where we found a Kingfisher and an Avocet

Tree Sparrow, Fairburn Ings RSPB
                                              

II arrived home at around 11:30pm after what was a pretty bad drive home with there being major delays around Huntingdon. A great trip and some great birds seen! 

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