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SPURN MIGRATION 18 OCTOBER 2015

Pallas's Warbler in autumn colours, Kilnsea

PALLAS'S WARBLER WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF ANOTHER GRAND DAY OUT AT SPURN with Mark Varley and Rocket. A constant stream of admirers passed by the roadside verge at Kilnsea to look for this albeit elusive little beauty.  Difficult enough to see, let alone photograph, we spent several hours standing around trying the recreate the first few minutes of our time with it to no avail. Truth is there was so much else to see on a classic late autumn day of migration at Spurn.

Soon after we got out of the car at the Warren the first of three Great Grey Shrikes was on driftwood along the saltmarsh, which it occasionally returned to when not hunting Goldcrests. The sky and bushes were full of birds: many hundreds of winter thrushes and starlings; siskins and redpolls headed south calling overhead all day; a few small groups of Bramblings were our first of the autumn; two or three Short-eared Owls frequented the Triangle area; a female Merlin dashed past at the new narrows hunting shorebirds and a three Whooper Swans flew south whooping as they went. The birds certainly brightened up a dull day with a light NNE wind and occasional drizzle! The variety of migrants was fairly low with typically later birds like Goldcrests (every bush had at least one or two!) robins and Redwings, Fieldfares and blackbirds dominating with a few Blackcaps and chiffchaffs amongst them. Migration spectacles like this are definitely the 'new rarities' for me! There is nothing quite like an autumn fall at Spurn.

We ended with a fine point blankSnow Bunting in the clifftop caravan park and the American Golden Plover in a field with lapwings along the Easington straight. What a great way to finish off another fantastic day! Back to the Middle East tomorrow.

Goldcrest = another contender for bird of the day! Some within touching distance.

Snow Bunting, Kilnsea Caravan Park - I hardly dropped below 3200ISO in the gloom today.

Everyone loves Pallas's Warblers!

The Humber shore from the Canal.

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SPURN MIGRATION 3-4 OCTOBER 2015

Olive-backed Pipit, Middle Camp.

A CLASSIC WEEKEND AT SPURN KICKED OFF WITH NEWS OF AN OLIVE-BACKED PIPIT found at high tide near the Chalk Bank seawatching hide. Although there wasn't any rain the previous night, high pressure and light easterlies had persisted on and off all week, yet another record-breaking influx of Yellow-browed Warblers was taking place in the UK and particularly at Spurn. I wondered what was coming behind this wave of what was presumably thousands of birds from the Urals and eastwards. The third of October also marked the first time I saw YbW, on Holy Island in Northumberland when I was still a kid in 1981.

After a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers and a quick look at a nice Jack Snipe from the Canal Scrape hide (this is one of the best places to see them in the UK these days), alongside a Common Snipe, Robi Goder and Attila Simay and I trekked out to the point, crossing the breach just after the tide had fallen. The OBP was quite elusive and took quite a lot of folks to find it but occasionally it sat up in ancient elder bushes for a few seconds allowing some nice views.

Olive-backed Pipit, Middle Camp.

Most people had drifted off back north towards the Warren again and I was still trying to get some photos of the pipit when news came through over the shortwave radios of a Pied or Black-eared Wheatear on the beach at Chalk Bank less than 1km to the north! OK I can leave this for a little while I thought until a short while later more news... a Citrine Wagtail on the beach at the breach. Wow! Black-eared is a much rarer bird in Yorkshire than the former but the wheatear was quite quickly decided to be a Pied and when I eventually caught up with the crowds I was pleased to see it was a smart male too! The wheatear was moving up and down along the stretch of beach and some people had even photographed both of these birds in the same frame!

Pied Wheatear, Chalk Bank.

Happily both the wheatear and wagtail stayed long enough for me to see them, albeit in dull afternoon light. There were not many other commoner migrants around though, except for plenty of Goldcrests and Common Reed Buntings plus a few Song Thrushes, Chiffchaffs and a Blackcap. What a day indeed! I don't think I had been on the spot for three birds of this rarity to turn up within walking distance since the two cuckoos and grosbeak on St Mary's in 1985.

Citrine Wagtail on the beach just south of 'The Breach'.

After an enjoyable evening in the Crown & Anchor (another 30 years anniversary!) I hiked back to the Point with Dave Hursthouse but the OBP and wheatear were not to be found today, just a Jack Snipe and a few Northern Wheatears of note. The Citrine Wagtail had moved north to the triangle and we saw it a couple of times in front of the Canal Scrape hide. Amazing how different its appearance looked in the warm sun today! There were still some Yellow-browed Warblers around but first place went to an apparently new Arctic Warbler trapped at Kew. There was a mass gathering of twitchers for this one (even though Lee was worried that 'some people are missing'), all lined up along the fence in the Church Field as Paul walked it down but with so many people there wasn't time for much more than a quick glimpse before its release. Super smart phyllosc nevertheless! There were a few spots of rain and the wind had turned to the east again as redwings flew over calling.

Arctic Warbler, Church Field.

While we were milling around after this, news from Adam Hutt of a Little Bunting flying around over the Warren. It was trapped there soon afterwards and he showed it next to the seawatching hide, encircled by a crowd of keen twitchers. Thanks a lot for some great work mate! The guys at Spurn try very hard to show the interesting birds they catch and use the opportunity to raise funds for the conservation and ringing efforts there. However, I did see some 2p pieces in the collection bucket. This is Yorkshire after all! Remember to take some £1 coins next time or better still, become a Friend of Spurn Bird Observatory, it's only £22 per year and a very worthy cause.

Little Bunting, The Warren.

Attila and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Yellow-browed Warblers among the Goldcrests. A Comma and Red Admiral brightened up things at the Warren, the Citrine Wagtail landed on the road on front of us at the Triangle and we enjoyed some great grub at the Bluebell. The Hungarian boys were late to rise and started drinking lager again immediately but Attila still managed a self-found UK lifer, a Great Egret flying south over Beacon Lane. Everyone else 'found' it too. A flock of Pinkfeet also passed over and a female Merlin was hunting shorebirds along the Humber of note. We finished with the Arctic Warbler feeding in a hedge at Church Field. A great way to end a weekend that we will remember for a long time. THANK YOU SPURN!

Citrine Wagtail, Canal Scrape.

Goldcrest at the Warren

Comma on autumn Sycamore leaf.

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BELOWEZHSKAYA PUSHCHA NATIONAL PARK, BELARUS

Eurasian Lynx, Belowezhskaya Pushcha NP.

An evening drive north into the vast Beloweshskaya Pushcha National Park protected area of the forest produced around 20 Wild Boars, 10 Red Deer, 2 Western Roe Deer as well as the desired European Bison, a bull in the evening in a quiet meadow followed by another nearby at dusk. A Eurasian Nightjar and a Long-eared Owl were also spotlit but the highlight of the drive (and the whole tour for all) was the Eurasian Lynx that Dima spotted trotting along the side of the road, wagging its short black tail. It occasionally veered off into the understory next to the road but soon returned to continue on its way somewhere. Dima was able to attract its attention to look round at us from time to time before it finally disappeared after around 20 minutes. Fabulous! After hearing that our guide at Vygonoshansky has only seen lynx twice ever and our guide at Belowezhskaya sees it around three times per year we were not expecting this!

The weather was still rather changeable and rain hammered down as we headed to the forest again for our final day’s birding. Happily the downpour gradually to eased to another fine sunny day and we enjoyed a pleasant morning with a couple of surprises. First of all we visited a Tengmalm’s Owl nest hole in a dead pine tree stump, formerly home to a Black Woodpecker family. Its occupant soon popped its head out of the hole with its Collins Guide ‘astonished look’ on its face and glared at us for a while before deciding we were not worth any more attention and shuffling back into the dark hole. En route to another hole appointment a Pine Marten crossed the road, soon followed by another. Eventually we reached the place to be and were surprised to see that the Eurasian Pygmy Owl we were hoping to see was already looking out of its hole in our direction. It duly obliged with a nice view for all before we left it to tend its nest. What a great trio of sightings to start the day!

After lunch we had a quick look around the animal enclosures, with their sad inhabitants before making our way to the ancient oak grove. Woodpeckers abounded here with White-backed and Middle Spotted particularly welcome. It was hard not to be impressed by the size of some of the ancient deciduous trees here, now a rare sight in lowland Europe and their fallen ancestors left to rot where they fall providing much food for the rest of the ecosystem. Flycatchers were also here too with European Pied, Collared and Red-breasted.

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SPOROVO RESERVE, BELARUS

Aquatic Warbler, Sporovo Reserve.

We were not quite finished yet today. Pressing on towards our hotel at Bereza we started our exploration of the vast sedge fens of the Sporovo reserve. The main attraction here is the rapidly declining Aquatic Warbler. Time really is running out for this sedge fen specialist and sooner rather than later is a good plan if you want to see it. The sun was still shining and we had no trouble in locating at least three of these buzzing little warblers not far from the roadside, singing atop bull rush stems. A couple of Sedge Warblers allowed a good comparison with the much simpler buzzing song of Aquatic Warbler. The following morning we visited another sedge fen area where we found another very obliging Aquatic Warbler. There were many Sedge Warblers here as well as a few Eurasian Reed Warblers and a Common Grasshopper Warbler but the stars of the show were the lovely Citrine Wagtails, including two lemon yellow males.

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