The Juvenile Birder

Another Cliffhanger! Image by @RobsBirding, not same bird We arrived at Filey at around 11:00am after getting a lift there by Carl. We had just come from Nottinghamshire where we dipped Lesser Spotted Woodpecker. As soon as we arrived at Filey, we immediately started walking towards Top Fields, where three Lapland Buntings had recently been seen. Along the way, I noticed a Fulmar  flying along the cliffs, as well as multiple Kittiwakes  far out to sea. Once we had arrived at Top Fields, we met another birder who was also searching for the Lapland Buntings. Suddenly, Carl called us over saying he had seen the three Lapland Buntings in flight. After a bit of waiting, we spotted the Lapland Buntings again in flight. They were much darker and longer winged than the Skylarks that were in the same field. After getting a few more brief flight views, I spotted what I thought was a Reed Bunting at first in the field, but I then realised it was a Lapland Bunting . We waited a bit longer...

 Another 3 Bite the Dust! image from mentor Rob from 28/10 We set off at 1.30am in hopes of seeing an Alpine Accentor. We arrived in Slaughden at around 7:00am. When we arrived, it was quite dark, so we walked towards Martello Tower and waited with the many other birders. We met birders Matt and George who told us there was a lump on a pipe in a crack at the tower. They said it was the Alpine Accentor because it roosted there overnight. It was around 7:13am so the light was getting better, making it easier to make out the bird. They let us look through the scope and I managed to get a good view of it. It was definitely the Alpine Accentor , with multiple people saying that, because we could make out the yellow on the bill, chestnut flanks, and the white spots on the wing. After enjoying it, it flew onto the roof and just before 7:30am, took off flying high away from us. We then looked for it for 4 hours knowing that it did this yesterday. We met some great birders including Rob K, ...

 All Spurnt Out!! We arrived at Spurn YWT at 6:25am and did a morning seawatch. It was fairly quiet, except for a few Meadow Pipits flying overhead. We then went over to Syke's Field, as soon as we got word that a Mealy Redpoll was sighted there, yesterday evening. On the way, we met Harry (a volunteer at Spurn), and we walked with him to the site via Corner's Field. We waited for a bit, while two other birders were also searching for it. With no luck still, we decided to go for the Barred Warbler at Kilnsea in the Listening Dish Hedge. At 9.05 we found the flock of birders and waited for a few minutes when it suddenly flew out of the bush. We then waited ages before we managed a second look at it, which was it flying straight into another bush. We then waited again until I spotted it flying out of a bush, as everyone got distracted by a Sparrowhawk. I then waited impatiently, for another long and tiring time, before it finally came out of the bush and was feeding right in the ...