The Juvenile Birder

Spurn Migfest! We arrived in North Field at Spurn at around 8:00am, after dipping the Pallid Harrier at Long Bank Marsh by 10 minutes. We were accompanied by Keith and Dave who had given us a lift. We had been told by Wayne Glossop that a Red-backed Shrike was showing near the marquees, so we made our way there and were greeted by a huge crowd of birders. We walked towards them and after listening to a few of the other birders describe where the bird was, I managed to spot the Red-backed Shrike  distantly perched on top of a hedge. It then came closer in, but only for a few seconds, before it flew out of view.  Since we were in North Field, we decided to check out some of the stands in the marquees. We also met a few familiar faces. Then, news broke out of a Wryneck in Schipper's Field about 45mins ago. Suddenly, everyone was in a rush to get to the field, but as soon as we got there, we were told there had been no sign of it. Not discouraged, we decided to look around the hed...

Dragonfly Hunt! We arrived at 10:30am to meet the kind Eddie Urbanski in order for him to tour us round his patch. Once we arrived had arrived at his patch, which was Cors Geirch NNR, the first thing I spotted was a Painted Lady , followed by a moth which Kevin (Eddie's friend) identified as a Straw Dot . We then started wading through a marshy bit of the site and almost immediately, Eddie pointed out a male Keeled Skimmer . Unfortunately, it flew away instead of landing for a record shot, but little did I know, that this would be one of many to be seen that day. We continued walking through the marsh when Kevin said he had a Bog Hoverfly. I searched the area he saw it in and spotted a male Keeled Skimmer sitting right in front of me, waiting to be photographed. We then walked through a dryer area of the wetland where Kevin pointed out a Bog Hoverfly ( Sericomyia Silentis )   nectaring right besides us, allowing for a perfect record shot. We then started searching the pony dung in ...

Tern Fest! We set off at 2:00am and arrived at Long Nanny at around 6:30am in hopes of seeing a rare, American tern Just from the car park, we heard a Whitethroat  and spotted a large, pale falcon hunting over a ploughed field, which was either an escaped, hybrid falcon or an aberrant Peregrine . We then walked over to Beadnell Bay Tern Reserve, spotting many Skylarks  and Reed Buntings  in amongst the dunes along the way. As soon as we arrived at Beadnell Bay Tern Reserve, we were struck by the copious amounts of noisy Arctic Terns , and it was great to see them nesting up close from the viewpoint We also spotted a brief Sandwich Tern  in amongst the terns. We then got great views of our target, the American Black Tern , as it flew around us, however it was too quick for me to be able to get a record shot. While we were waiting for the tern to re-appear, we met one of the rangers who pointed out the distant Little Tern  and Ringed Plover  nests, which were...