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.
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