Spurn Bird Observatory: What A Start!!

Started my time at Spurn Bird Observatory on Monday. It's now Friday and I have already tallied up 14 lifers (hardly surprising when the majority of my birding has been back at Beddington and this is my first time actually seawatching). On arrival day I got 4 lifers. The first one was Knot. Every other birder here was totally shocked when I said I hadn't ever seen one before! A Spotted Redshank on Kilnsea Wetlands was my 2nd lifer of the day and was quickly followed by Little Terns at the colony. In the late evening 28 Common Scoter flew south over the sea close in. The following day I got 3 lifers in about 10 seconds. The White-rumped Sandpiper was relocated on Beacon Ponds and the bird next to it was a Little Stint. Just a bit further round was my first ever Curlew Sandpipers. On the 17th I recorded 96 bird species and 5 of them were lifers, all seen on a morning seawatch. 84 Manx Shearwater, 8 Great Skua, 2 juvenile Black Terns, 1 Pomarine Skua, and 1 Sooty Shearwater were all new for me and it was good to pick up the Sooty Shearwater myself and boosted my confidence a bit. Yesterday the new one for me was Wryneck, which was an enjoyable joint find spotted whilst walking out to the end of the point. This morning on a brief and very quiet seawatch 7 Red-breasted Mergansers flew north.

The birding here has already been amazing and everywhere I look there's a bird. Other highlights that weren't lifers but have also been awesome to see include Pied Flycatcher, Garganey, Grey Plover, Golden Plover, Ruff, Sanderling, Little Gull, Yellow-legged Gull, Caspian Gull, Spoonbill, Marsh Harrier, Cuckoo, Tree Pipit, and Tree Sparrows (now almost a mythical bird at Beddington since their fairly recent population crash)! This morning I also found a Nightjar that flushed up off a bench by the Ringing Lab. Looked like either a female or young bird.

It's been great to have the opportunity to bird here and help out, along with meeting some excellent and very friendly people. Thanks to Paul Willoughby and Rob Hunton for being so welcoming and teaching me so much already and to Beth (fellow autumn residential volunteer) for being very friendly and helpful and telling me lots of fascinating facts about plants and moths and other non-bird related stuff that I know so little about. I thoroughly look forward to the rest of my time here and can't wait to find out what other cracking birds we'll see along the way.

Walton-on-the-Naze

From the 4th to the 8th of July my mum and I were staying in a caravan park in Walton-on-the-Naze. The main purpose of our stay was to have a nice relaxing break as a reward for me finishing my A Levels on the 24th of June. Of course as birders our interpretation of relaxing is very different from others and we indeed did a bit of birding each day that we were there. Our first day instantly started better than I had imagined. We hadn't long got off the train and started our walk along the promenade towards the caravan park when we decided we needed a short break from the heat and so we sat down and had an ice cream. Whilst enjoying our ice creams I noticed the rather 'flappy' flight of a bird out over the sea. We'd already had plenty of Black-headed Gulls going past but this bird was notably smaller and behaved totally different. It also looked wrong for a tern. Then it hit me... Little Gull! With my ice cream still in one hand I just about managed to grab by binoculars out of my backpack and confirmed that it was indeed a 1st summer Little Gull. I quickly got my mum onto it whilst I also hurried to finish my ice cream and then struggled to get my camera out of my bag. Once I was happy knowing that my mum had spotted it I got a few record shots. This was my mum's first ever Little Gull and only my second.

1st summer Little Gull below:

The following day we walked around The Naze EWT NR. A decent number of House Martins were the first notable sight (until this point I had seen less than 5 individuals for the year!). A Rabbit on the cliff face was accompanied by a Green Woodpecker and Common Whitethroats were singing everywhere. A few Oystercatchers screamed past and an immature Mediterranean Gull was spotted in the distance through the scope. Two juvenile Yellow Wagtails (the first juveniles I ever recall seeing) briefly dropped down onto the beach before realising our presence and flying off. As we approached the Backwaters 5 Barnacle Geese flew off heading out to the Walton Channel. A 1st summer Mediterranean Gull (perhaps the one from just a bit earlier) was sat asleep in amongst the Black-headed Gulls and a 3cy individual flew over too. A female Tufted Duck had one chick, which was the first young one I had seen this year. 2 Sandwich Terns flew south up the Walton Channel before U-turning. Several more Oystercatchers were dotted about and 2 Black-tailed Godwits flew around. The vocal Avocets and Redshanks were also enjoyable. An adult Mediterranean Gull flew low and circled for a bit whilst calling loudly. The end of our walk concluded with an energetic group of Swifts.

House Martin below:

Common Whitethroat

Oystercatchers above and below

Juvenile Yellow Wagtail

Female Tufted Duck

Sandwich Tern above and below

Black-tailed Godwits

Avocet

Adult Mediterranean Gull

Common Swifts

Carrion Crow

Adult Lesser Black-backed Gull

Pied Wagtail

On the 6th we walked along the seafront from Walton-on-the-Naze to Frinton-on-Sea and then continued onto Holland Haven Country Park. The only notable new bird for the trip observed on this walk was a very vocal singing Lesser Whitethroat (so much more vocal than I've ever known the Beddington birds to be). More Mediterranean Gulls and Oystercatchers were noted on this walk, along with Swallows and House Martins, a calling Pheasant, Reed Buntings, and some obliging Linnets. Completely contrasting to The Naze, I only recorded 1 Common Whitethroat. On our way back as we approached Walton Pier the 1st summer Little Gull was flying over the promenade (caught me totally by surprise and missed a decent photo opportunity) and a 1st summer Mediterranean Gull flew west. Later on an adult Mediterranean Gull showed very well on the beach.

Singing Lesser Whitethroat below:

Oystercatcher below:

Adult Black-headed Gull below:

2nd cycle Herring Gull

Male Blackbird

Male Linnet

1st summer Little Gull above and below

1st summer Mediterranean Gull above and below

Adult Mediterranean Gull below:

For our final full day on the Thursday, we decided to walk around The Naze EWT NR again. New birds that we hadn't seen on the 5th included: 1 Shoveler, 1 Gadwall, 1 Teal, 5 Ringed Plover, 1 Whimbrel, 1 Turnstone, 1 Green Sandpiper (heard only), 2 Common Tern, 1 Jay, 1 Lesser Whitethroat, and 1 juvenile Stonechat. However, the ultimate highlight was 'finding' a Spotted Redshank. Despite my best efforts (my mum continued on back towards the caravan and I stayed put) I never saw this bird. So I've still never seen a Spotted Redshank, but at least I've got a sound recording and I know that I can pick them up on call.

Calling Spotted Redshank below:

Barnacle Goose above and below

Shoveler

Female Tufted Duck

Avocets above and below

Black-tailed Godwits

Ringed Plover

Whimbrel above and below

Turnstone

Little Egret

Sedge Warbler

Nesting Sand Martin

Juvenile Stonechat

Female House Sparrow

Male Reed Bunting

Full Ebird Trip Report here.