Back at Spurn for Another Season

I am back volunteering at Spurn this year but this time I am doing the spring and summer rather than the autumn.. I did apply for the Assistant Warden role but just got trumped by Jacob Spinks. He has lived up at Spurn for the past six years and his knowledge of the area is impeccable. I know he is going to do a great job as the new AW. I am very pleased that I even managed to make it a close call between us and overall the application and interview process was all good experience - the second interview being my first ever in person.

I am looking forward to the season ahead, both in terms of birds that could turn up and also building up more experience so that I can become a stronger candidate for AW applications either here or at other bird observatories. Posts on social media and on this blog have been very slow over recent months, partly to do with having a broken camera lens and partly down to changes at home. However, I do intend to start posting more frequently again in the near future. By some time next week I should be able to take photos again, as thanks to Peter Alfrey I am getting a replacement second-hand lens. After so long being out without the option of taking photos with a camera I am excited to try out the new lens. Hopefully throughout the season it will come in handy when finding some rarities.

I have also started to learn to ring this time - something that I intended to do last autumn but never got round to. After ringing 19 birds in Skagen last summer I am keen to get under way again, with the eventual goal to obtain at least a C permit for ringing. Lots of bird observatories ask for this in AW and some volunteer job descriptions so it will be beneficial to me in that sense, but I am also looking forward to learning lots of new and interesting facts throughout the process - particularly how to age and sex different species. Paul Collins has been great at teaching me the very basics over the last couple of days.

After completing the point counts round The Triangle this morning I joined PC in Church Field. He had not caught much and was considering packing up for the day. Thankfully, he changed his mind so that I could do a few net rounds with him and soon there were more birds turning up in the nets. The star highlights included a female Firecrest and a male Brambling nearing summer plumage, along with several male Siskins, some Chiffchaffs, Redwings, Blackbirds, and Goldcrests etc.

Female Firecrest

Early afternoon Rob gave me a lift up to Withernsea so I could go food shopping. On the way back he (rather impressively) managed to pick out the Black Brant amongst the Brent Goose flock whilst driving along. I soon got onto the bird he was on and being my first ever view of one I was happy that I too could recognise the difference between it and the Dark-bellied Brents fairly easily. Over the next few days I will go and have another look to see if I can pick it out again without anyone's assistance.