tony.hetheringt
Well-known member
Just had a long weekend away in the caravan at Burstwick, just east of Kingston upon Hull.
This is ideally situated for Spurn Point.
We heard our first CUCKOO of the year on Friday night,and actually saw it fly past,calling early on Sunday morning.
Saturday morning,early, saw us at Sammy's Point near Easington on a cool and breezy but bright day where among the wheatears and linnets in a horse grazed field we saw up to 4 RING OUZELS.
The tide was well out, but some BAR TAILED GODWITS were feeding close to the shoreline with whimbrels and curlews-- nice to see the size difference.
There is quite alot of shrubbery at Sammy's Point ,but the wind had most of the passerines keeping their heads down. It didn't stop the linnets and whitethroats much though as they were numerous. The only "different" warbler was a LESSER WHITETHROAT which sang to alert me of its presence
then changed bushes.
Two marsh harriers flew by and as we walked back to the car a single swift joined the swallows and sand martins briefly.Yellow wagtails now frequented the short grass where they fed around some grazing horses.
We moved on to the carpark at Kilnsea where tree sparrows associated with house sparrows and walked up to Beacon Ponds a biggish brackish lagoon with a hide. A couple of people exited the hide as we approached and said there was very little to see. NEVER DO THIS, LET US FIND OUT FOR OURSELVES.
They were wrong of course, 20 minutes later we had GREY PLOVER,2 LITTLE TERNS, and 2 SANDWICH TERNS.On the way back down to the car park we saw out first SEDGE WARBLER although we have heard them befor now this year.
There is another hide on the Canal Scrape where a nice male REDSTART posed on some bushes.
We next did the Kilnsea Triangle walk along the canal bank and back along a minor road where bird of the day was seen, albeit in the hand as it had been just caught and ringed, a NIGHTINGALE.
GANNETS were unusually seen in the estuary.
Next stop was Chalk Bank hide about half way down the peninsula where good views were had of an ARCTIC TERN resting on the beach.
Final bird of the day was a very obliging WRYNECK which posed and fluttered about not too far from the hide in what is known as the sheep field.
Next day- Sunday we went to Far Ings Nature reserve almost underneath the Humber Bridge,eat your heart out Golden Gate.
A big reedbed hosted 4 BITTERNS of which one gave really excellent views before flying slow motion across the reserve.
The weather was really warm and spring like today so we really enjoyed our trek even though everything else birdwise was expected.
May 3rd a bank holiday over here saw us return to Spurn,where after a wet start we had another spring day.
Excellent views of a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, rounded tail and all rewarded us for the 10 minutes it took us to locate the bird after first hearing it.
Final bird of the weekend were 3 WHINCHATS feeding in typical whinchat style from fence posts and tall grasses
All in all one of our most memorable trips to this area.
This is ideally situated for Spurn Point.
We heard our first CUCKOO of the year on Friday night,and actually saw it fly past,calling early on Sunday morning.
Saturday morning,early, saw us at Sammy's Point near Easington on a cool and breezy but bright day where among the wheatears and linnets in a horse grazed field we saw up to 4 RING OUZELS.
The tide was well out, but some BAR TAILED GODWITS were feeding close to the shoreline with whimbrels and curlews-- nice to see the size difference.
There is quite alot of shrubbery at Sammy's Point ,but the wind had most of the passerines keeping their heads down. It didn't stop the linnets and whitethroats much though as they were numerous. The only "different" warbler was a LESSER WHITETHROAT which sang to alert me of its presence
then changed bushes.
Two marsh harriers flew by and as we walked back to the car a single swift joined the swallows and sand martins briefly.Yellow wagtails now frequented the short grass where they fed around some grazing horses.
We moved on to the carpark at Kilnsea where tree sparrows associated with house sparrows and walked up to Beacon Ponds a biggish brackish lagoon with a hide. A couple of people exited the hide as we approached and said there was very little to see. NEVER DO THIS, LET US FIND OUT FOR OURSELVES.
They were wrong of course, 20 minutes later we had GREY PLOVER,2 LITTLE TERNS, and 2 SANDWICH TERNS.On the way back down to the car park we saw out first SEDGE WARBLER although we have heard them befor now this year.
There is another hide on the Canal Scrape where a nice male REDSTART posed on some bushes.
We next did the Kilnsea Triangle walk along the canal bank and back along a minor road where bird of the day was seen, albeit in the hand as it had been just caught and ringed, a NIGHTINGALE.
GANNETS were unusually seen in the estuary.
Next stop was Chalk Bank hide about half way down the peninsula where good views were had of an ARCTIC TERN resting on the beach.
Final bird of the day was a very obliging WRYNECK which posed and fluttered about not too far from the hide in what is known as the sheep field.
Next day- Sunday we went to Far Ings Nature reserve almost underneath the Humber Bridge,eat your heart out Golden Gate.
A big reedbed hosted 4 BITTERNS of which one gave really excellent views before flying slow motion across the reserve.
The weather was really warm and spring like today so we really enjoyed our trek even though everything else birdwise was expected.
May 3rd a bank holiday over here saw us return to Spurn,where after a wet start we had another spring day.
Excellent views of a GRASSHOPPER WARBLER, rounded tail and all rewarded us for the 10 minutes it took us to locate the bird after first hearing it.
Final bird of the weekend were 3 WHINCHATS feeding in typical whinchat style from fence posts and tall grasses
All in all one of our most memorable trips to this area.
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