Had a bit of paperwork and stuff to do first thing this morning so got that out of the way and took a quick trip to Barton for the Red necked Phal. When I set off it was bright and sunny but by the time I found where the bird was the sky was black so getting pics was a case of 1250iso and lots of blur!! later on though it came out a bit sunnier and I managed a few reasonable pics. This is the best one taken at iso800 and about 400/sec. I'll go back later in the week and try again if we get a sunny day as it shows down to less than 10 feet!!!

If you read this often you will remember I've previously mentioned a Shrike I found on my last day on Shetland. Well after I had got home I heard a couple of other birders (one of whom I told about my suspicions) had seen the bird and one of them got pics that were due to be published.

So I was pretty keen to see them and when Birding World landed on the doormat last week I flicked straight to them. Now to me the article seems a bit egotistical and doesn't read very well but the pics are what matter most and although they aren't the best quality (I'm pretty sure Rebecca Nason would have made a better job of it) they do show features of Brown Shrike. Well the jolly nice fella that has written the article has mentioned that I was the finder which is really good of him but it's a shame he couldn't tell the whole story instead of making out I reported it as a Red backed, to be honest this isn't a million miles from the truth its just it misses the important caveat that I couldn't rule out Brown and some things about it niggled me!!! Oh well everyone already told me he was a prize wanker so I suppose I should have expected it. Anyway the people that matter know what really happened.

WANKER WANKER WANKER WANKER WANKER..................................

Those of you who know Spurn will realise what a loss to the obs it is that we've had to close most of the buildings, only the warren cottage remains, the others are all deemed unfit for us to use anymore. That means no more 'room A' or as it is also known 'the naughty boys room'. This is a bit of a shock to the system really I've been staying in that room for 22 years, that's a big chunk of my life and some of the best nights I've ever had have been in this room and some of the best friends I've got have been met there. It really is the end of an era!

Room A is no more!!!

But then again you can't keep room A down!

Not really done a lot of birding in the last couple of weeks. I've managed to get to spurn at weekends but there's not been much around and I've spent most of my time trying to get pics of a central asian Lesserthroat thats been hanging round the crown car park. Its a bastard to get shots of it never sits still and there's always branches in front of it, these are about the best I've managed.

I like the second shot, shows the extensive white in the outer tail pretty well and isn't something you see everyday.

I also got really close to a few Snedge Bunts that were hanging around on the cliff top nr Hutts hut!

I've had a couple of lucky escapes it the last few days, firstly I nearly went for the Chameleon Warbler in Cornwall, what's all this shit with Bright Green? It's fucking Green ok. Trouble is this one wasn't it was Greenish!
They can and often do show a yellowish wash in sunlight around the sides of the face look at this one from Spurn http://www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/sightings/september05.html it's only really noticeable in bright sunlight and disappears in dull conditions. I must admit when I saw Martin Elliots notebook paintings I thought it looked good with the amount of Yellow on the breast he'd painted. In the end it was sound recorded and Magnus Robb says it's a Greenish, that's good enough for me! Anyway I think certain quarters will keep the debate going for a little longer before eventually giving up on it!

Then came the Rattray heed Olly. In Aug 95 I was on a 'stag do' in Suffolk and dipped the Kessingland bird whilst dropping some lovely young ladies back at their campsite, even saw the birders cars but knew nothing of the bird and had other things on my mind! So getting sick of waiting for one in Yorks (Spurn must be due one these) I was trying to get a team together. I'm glad I didn't and the less said about the ID the better!

So anyway what did I get upto? Well spent the weekend at Spurn and although it wasn't heaving with stuff in the bushes there was enough to keep you going. Duck passage was good but wanted to make the most of what was left of the bush bashin for this year so didn't look at many. Had this nice shorty come in off on Sat afternoon.

Sunday morning was a washout with torrential rain and high winds, this Little Bunt put in a better show than it had when found the day before but not much else was worth noting. A cold looking Snipe made most of us realise we knew either not enough, very little or nothing about the ID of Wilson's in the end a quick shufty on the internet gave us enough ammo to suss it didn't have a yank accent

I've been trying to sharpen and sort the colours out on my pics but with these I think I've gone way over the top, I really need to learn how to do it properly. Trouble is CS2 won't open RAW files so I'm having to change them to JPEG's first which seems stupid, I'm gonna get CS4 which apparantly works with later Canon cameras then buy a book or some magazines.

Tues 27th
Pretty good day today, loads of Thrushes coming in off at Spurn, totals for the day are on the Spurn website http://www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/ these are absolute minimum as so often the case when birds are coming in all down the peninsula loads must be missed. I remember about 4 years ago we had an incredible day when Redwings were everywhere, it was one of my best days birding ever just for the sheer spectacle of it, about 8000 dropped into the Kew/Crown area in the first 30 mins of daylight! That day 47,000 went into the log but everyone there agreed it must have been at least double that present, it was just impossibe to count them.
Also saw the Richards Pipit up Beacon Lane today and the Bluetail at the point which is unbelievably still present after not being seen for a whole week!
Mid afternoon a day visitor found a Red rumped Swallow going south over the Blue bell which turned back north and multiplied into 2. Got good views of them but the pics are shit cos it was really grey and overcast.

Went to the gas terminal for the last half hour and was surprised to see 1000 Little Gulls offshore in one big flock, after a few minutes 300 went inland and the rest appeared to fly off south.

Sat 24th
It all turned out OK in the end, got stunning views of the bird through the scope, being quite a lethargic feeder for a phylosc it was pretty easy to keep on even when mag was cranked up to 40+.
These really are a bit special, with over a hundred years between the first and second European records and an almost north-south migration route in the very far east its perhaps surprising there's now been 4 records in western Europe in the last 10 years, but I don't think they'll ever become common. I didn't bother with the camera cos with so many people I wouldn't have been able to get close enough to make it worthwhile so just enjoyed watching it. I got a pic of the crowd on my phone, mainly to show this prick in the hi-viz coat! Bet he's got fuckin shit loads of fieldcraft!!!

Went home via Bempton where I saw the Bluetail in horrible weather, really foggy and pissing it down, it showed like Jenna Jameson though! Also got brief mega distant views of the Red backed Shrike which I wanted to see well not having seen one since the bird I had on Shetland. Which without saying too much at the moment there's been some developments with.