The Juvenile Birder

Fleeting Glimpses of Gold! We arrived at RSPB Bempton Cliffs in hopes of seeing an extremely rare Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. We were accompanied by Dave, who we had given a lift to. On our drive to Bempton we spotted a Barn Owl perched by the side of the road. It soon got up and flew alongside us in the car, going almost the exact same speed as us and giving incredible views  Upon arrival at Bempton, we were greeted by a large crowd of birders, who all seemed to be looking at something in the car park. We parked in a convenient space opposite them and jumped out to see what they were looking at. Since I was at the back of the crowd, it was impossible for me to see over the birders. Dave then took us round to a gap in the hedge, where the bird had been showing well yesterday. We sat on the floor waiting for it to appear in the undergrowth. Suddenly, the Pale-legged Leaf Warbler  flitted right in front of us, calling. Although it was the bird, I didn't ideally want to tick the b...

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...

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 ...

 Spurn on Point We arrived at around 6:40am and started the day by walking along the canal, hoping to see an Icterine Warbler and any other migrants. Halfway along the canal footpath, I spotted a juvenile Red-backed Shrike , sat in a bush, before it flew on the other side of the canal and landed on a post. We then reached the end of the canal footpath, so we checked the Crown & Anchor car park before entering Churchfield. We didn't see many birds in Churchfield, but I did see a Gatekeeper . We then noticed a warden opening a moth trap. I was looking to see if there were any new moths for me in the trap, so I asked him about all the moths I spotted which looked interesting. The first new moth I saw was a Dusky Sallow as well as a Common Plume  (both pictured). I then saw the only two new underwing moths in the trap, a Copper Underwing  as well as a Pearly Underwing  (a scarce migrant moth). The other new moths I saw in the trap were Dingy Footman , White Point , C...