The Juvenile Birder

Back at Spurn! We arrived at Spurn at around 8:00am after getting a lift from Dave. We parked at Kilnsea Wetlands and immediately made our way towards Beacon Ponds where a Stilt Sandpiper (which was a lifer) was reported. We reached a small huddle of birders and a kind birder let us view the Stilt Sandpiper through his scope. We then got onto the Stilt Sandpiper in our scopes and I managed to get a few digiscoped images of it through Dave's scope. The Stilt Sandpiper  seemed to be an adult and was hanging around with two Dunlin . It was rotating between both sides of New Bank but spent most of its time on the Kilnsea Wetlands side. While watching the Stilt Sandpiper, we also noticed a few Yellow Wagtails , a Sanderling , two Greenshanks and a very showy and dark-backed Common Sandpiper .  We then made our way back to the car where we met Bob Eckersley. While talking to him, we noticed a  Hobby hunting hirundines just across the field, from where we were standing. I could ...

The King of Garden Birds! We set off at 3:30am in hopes of seeing a mainland Myrtle Warbler in Kilwinning. The last mainland Myrtle Warbler in the UK was ten years ago, so this was quite a special bird.  As soon as we arrived, we met Kristian who pointed out the Myrtle Warbler  straight away feeding on the feeders. We also met Wayne who was there for seconds of the bird.  The Myrtle Warbler  was much bigger than I expected, and its prominent white wingbars stood out when I first saw it. It stayed on the feeders for quite a while, before it started chasing away the Blue Tits  and the Great Tits . There was plenty of food in the bird feeders in the garden, but the Myrtle Warbler was too busy chasing off birds. The only birds it didn't chase were those larger in it, which included the  Song Thrushes and the Blackbirds . Suddenly, as I watched the Myrtle Warbler  through by binoculars in the trees, a female Siskin appeared from behind but it too got chase...

Northern Stars We set off at 12pm on a rainy day and arrived at Long Nanny at 3:15pm in hopes of seeing a first for Britain! We walked along the track to get to the farm, where the bird had been viewed from. We scrambled on top of a huge dirt mound in order to scan the fields. Then, a bird with a grey head, brown back, white underbelly and a striking yellow bill appeared in my view. It was the  Grey-headed Lapwing , a wader from Asia! I watched it in the cold and managed to get a decent record shot of it. Surprisingly there was no other birder in sight, I had this first for Britain all to myself! I felt very satisfied with my views and set off to Boulmer for another lifer, a Red-backed Shrike! We arrived at Seaton Point at around 4:20pm and walked towards where the bird had been reported. We met two other birders who said the bird got spooked by a Meadow Pipit, but should still be around. The longer we waited, the less hopeful we became. It was raining hard and was very cold. There...

Twitch , Eat, Sleep, Repeat! We arrived at Whitley Bay at around 8:00am (after a 3hr drive) in hopes of seeing the recently reported Pied Wheatear. We parked along the side of the road and walked towards the Panama Dip. Upon arrival, we met Phil, who let us look through his scope and directed us to the Pied Wheatear . It was arguably one of the easiest twitches. The beautiful Pied Wheatear was tame and not bothered by the runners or us! It is always great to see a pretty bird without bins and I enjoyed watching this bird, as it flitted around! It sat in plain sight, on the side of a wall, and came closer to us, on his own accord. It was great light too, making for one of my best record shots! We then drove 8 minutes to St Mary's Island in hopes of seeing, what was reported as a showy Water Pipit. When we arrived, we walked down to the promenade and scanned all the rocks and kelp. We met and chatted with a great birder named John, who said the bird was in a single spot, chasing aro...

 Morning Mega!! We arrived at Redcar at 4:30am in hopes of seeing a MEGA rare Greater Sand Plover that was reported last night. A few days ago, this same bird was located in Aberdeenshire (6 hours away) and we were tempted to go. Then, the one there left and this was found. Whether it's the same bird, we don't know, but it's much closer than Aberdeenshire. It was a two and a half our journey and the sun was barely out when we arrived. We parked at Majuba Car Park and followed a group of birders along the path overlooking the coast. Sanderling ran along the shore with Ringed Plover, while Oystercatchers and Redshank fed along the softer sand. We then arrived at the spot it was last seen and started looking. Suddenly, a man shouts that he's got it in the line of kelp midway through the beach, yet I had no clue where to look. It took a couple of attempts to find the bird, with joggers and dog walkers making it fly off and come back, when suddenly, I got a quick glimpse of ...

  Near Death Experience! (distant digiscoped Arctic Skua (x2) on sea) We arrived at Spurn YWT at 7:00am in hopes of seeing a reported Wryneck. We asked a site volunteer directions towards Middle Camp, where the wryneck was, and he said walk along the beach and pointed to the beach but the estuary blocked the view of the beach and we thought he meant to cross the estuary (don't want to get him fired). We walked over the grass until we were within touching distance of the mud. And when we went in, we sank in the soft mud and lost a pair of shoes.We knew someone called Phil who did it before and mentioned soft sand so we kept repeated, if Phil could do it, we can do it. But after telling him about the quicksand, he called and said "Get off the estuary, it's really dangerous, go along the road to a beach with soft sand, if I meant mud I'd have said mud,". We did it but unfortunately couldn't retrieve the shoes as it was too dangerous so we left them. I did notice ...

 Passage Sandpipers, Waders and More! We arrived early morning at 5:00 and headed straight towards the sea wall (overlooking The Wash). Temminck's Stint, Pectoral Sandpiper and Little Stint had been seen there. We went over, seeing some Dunlin in summer plumage, a few Common Terns and a Lapwing as it dive-bombed a Pheasant grazing. As we went on the sea wall, huge flocks of Dunlin and Ringed Plover covered entire masses of islands. High tide had just come in while a Hare ran up on the path, paused, and then continued towards the sea. I scanned the islands when I managed to come across something. Feeding along the rocks was a breath-taking, summer plumage Turnstone- a year tick. It ran along and then flew off towards East Hide. A few more Common Terns were landing on islands while Brown Hares were being consistently seen running through the fields. We then made our way towards East Hide, spotting Sedge Warblers, Meadow Pipits and Skylarks on the way. We went in and I scanned. Presen...

  Terns! We arrived at 4:00pm after a trip to Foulshaw Moss CWT. We first got some info on where the hide was and headed straight there. Just a few minutes on arrival, I spotted some ducks on the water. I took a close look with my binoculars and managed to pick up a male Eider and a Great Crested Grebe. We continued down the coastal path that leads to the hide, enjoying panoramic views of the sea, wheatears as they flew from rock to rock and the comical sounds of Eiders. We then saw a tern dive down and catch a fish. I examined its beak and identified it as a Sandwich Tern, a life tick. We arrived at the hide. We met someone called Rachael who showed us a colony of Little Terns, another life tick. She then showed us a Ringed Plover on a nest as well as two others that were fairly close. Common Gulls and Black-Headed Gulls patrolled the predator fence surrounding the island as the occasional Red-Breasted Mergansers appeared within the hoards of Eider. Overall, a good day w...