My missing posts have mysteriously returned!!  So now it looks like I've been repeating myself!  Strange goings on.

One of the lads at Spurn woke on Sunday morning and remarked "north fuckin westerlies, good for fuck all in May".  A Tawny Pipit, Bee-Eater, White tailed Eagle and 2 Quail.  Not bad for north westerlies!

I got there and went straight for the Pipit, I'd like to say it showed really well and I got this stunning pic

But truthfully I didn't this is from Oman.  It showed shite, well it did if like me you opted not to bother with a scope and carry the camera instead.  The pic below is the best I could manage of it. Also got distant flight views of the Golden O but little else.

Whilst watching it I heard Mark had had the Eagle at Hornsea (decent couple of days at the mere with thisa and R R Swallow) and Shortly after that Ade had had it over Aldborough, it looked like it was gonna stick to the coast so I opted to get to the north of the gas terminal and pick it up as it came over Holmpton.  The flaw in my plan was that the bird flew low to the west of us and evaded detection.  Smithy remarked whilst we were waiting for it that eagle eye Adam Hutt would probably pick it up from his position at the seawatch hide first even though we were 3+ miles north of him.  In the event he did as it came out over the Humber somewhere to the west of Sammy's.  Almost as soon as it was picked up it dropped really low over the water and into the heat haze where it promptly disappeared.  It was probably only visible for a minute or so and if you weren't on it straight away you had no chance.

All I can remember from the missing post or two (can't even remember how many there were!) is that I think there's something a bit suspicious about the Rock Bunting claim from Bolton Abbey.  Too many things don't quite add up.  The anonymity bit is very strange, the observer has been known to someone at the BTO for 30 yrs and he knows enough to realise the bird was something different, so surely he would know people will want to check the validity of the record!  Also the digital image is not available because he doesn't know how to e-mail the pic!  I've heard there are people out there that can't do that but I thought it was just hearsay you know like nessy.  The digital image is surely crucial if this record is to be acceptable so that the EXIF data can be checked.  I'm not saying outright this is a hoax but for the sake of the official record being true then some things really need to be checked out.

Wednesday I had the day at Spurn.  Normally I'd have been happy with Nightingale and Red rumped Swallow but this year we just keep getting the birds which is making us greedy.  So I was a bit annoyed when shortly after I left they had another Red rump and a Monties!

Thursday I checked Swinemoor but didn't really do much birding, only things present were the Wood Sand and LRP still.  So I was peeved when Steve Webb text to say he'd got a Temminck's!  Bastard.  Serves me right really I only checked it from the road earlier and you can't see the near edge of the pool from there.  Mind you when I went down and walked to the pool I couldn't find it anyway.  Friday morning whilst back at Spurn Webby texts again to say it was still there!  Sodding thing must hide in Rabbit burrows.  After returning from Spurn I decided to have a look even though Steve text ten minutes before I got there to say he couldn't find it and bingo found it.  All I need to do now is find my own.

I said the other day that Swinemoor needs to be properly managed, here's a pic of it at the moment.

I haven't got any pics of it at it's peak but the dark muddy areas in the right hand side of the frame are normally large pools of open water and the whole area is so wet and boggy you can't walk across it.  The place is teeming with Lapwing, it has Redshank and Snipe breeding too plus Yellow Wagtail and Garganey have hung around long enough in the past to suggest breeding attempts.  It's criminal this place isn't managed properly.

Back at Spurn on Friday things were very quiet had an LRP and a Wood Saand go south but very few Swallows moving, highlight was just as I'd left a crackly message came through from Adamwhich I could just make out enough of to suggest it was something worthwhile, turned out to be a Monties so I shot back and caught up with it at the Narrows.

where have my posts from the last few days gone?  They were here yesterday and now seem to have vanished, very odd.  Can't be arsed to restructure them or to post stuff from today!  I'll upload over the weekend, pics of Monties and Temminck's to come, I know you can't wait!

I decided not to bother going for the Rock Bunt first thing, my logic was that it was unlikely to have hung around for 5 days in spring so I would wait for news.  Seems everyone else had the same idea!  I got a phone call from Brett at 07.45 saying he was the only person there, that's just stupid, surely some local birders would have gone and checked it out?  Did anyone else bother all day or was Brett the only person to go and search?

This got me thinking, if none of the locals have gone do they know something we don't.  Lets look at what we do know.  It was seen by a birder who wishes to remain anonymous.  The only pic in the public domain was scanned from a print.  it was sent to the BTO for id.  The bits that concern me are the anonymous bit and the scanned print.  If you want to commit a hoax recent history tells us birders can be pretty good sleuths, well a print is a sure fire way of making sure you can't be caught out by the EXIF data embedded in the image.  As for the anonymity well lets just hope he's not too shy because I suspect the BBRC will want to have a word and see the original digital file.  I know I would!

This evening I got a call from Steve Webb to say he'd just found a Temminck's on Swinemoor, arse I checked there earlier today.  To be fair I only checked from the road and couldn't see the near edge of the pool.  I had a proper walk onto the pasture this evening but still couldn't see it, just the Wood Sand, LRP and a couple of Redshank which I'd seen earlier.  It only took me ten minutes to get there after Steve had left too.  I guess it must have been flushed or be hiding in the long grass!!

Rock Bunting!!!!! That would not be shit.

Had most of the day at Spurn today, managed one of the Red rumps and the Nightingale. Other stuff of note was a Hobby and several Marsh Harriers.




Looks like I might be at Bolton Abbey tomorrow with a bit of luck!


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I managed to do North Cave 3 times last week before I got sick of the place!  It's really not my cup of tea, I hate tea, never drink it.  I guess it's just not my sort of site.  I prefer to wander where I like not walk along a pre-set route and look from hides, they're ok if it's raining.  The ones at north cave never even get amusing graffiti or shaggers in them like the Fairburn ones did when I birded there!  There is a stage 2 and stage 3 extension to this place planned, more of the same, when in fact initially a landfill was proposed.  Now lets look at this, a landfill site next to a series of lakes for bathing with islands and causeways for roosting, sounds perfect and it's the one time when a hide would be useful so I don't have to sit in the car looking at Gulls, and the YWT  got it stopped, tossers.

So after not getting out all weekend (too many other birders) I decided on a few hours out today.  First stop was Bewholme Hall pond, well if I'm not gonna find a Temminck's I may as well have a look at one someone else has!  It wasn't to be, a Wood Sand, 2 LRP and 2 Common Sand where all that was present.  I only discovered this place last year, it does look a good little site though, I can imagine it getting a monster one day.  Next on to Hornsea where the Spooner was seen but initially nowt else.

Pretty typical view of a Spooner, laziest bird in the world

After I'd been there about half an hour the Spooner flew, no really it did, for about 10 metres then it returned to the same spot.  All the nearby ducks (including a drake pintail) didn't though they carried on flying round.  The culprit was an Osprey which spent the next hour and a half hovering about but I didn't actually see it try to catch anything.  A little Egret dropped in (not a common bird at Hornsea......yet) and a Common Sand calling where the only other birds of note but a good bit of crack with Mark and someone skyving off work who shall remain nameless!

Once back in Beverley I called in at Swinemoor to look at the one remaining puddle the farmer hasn't managed to drain completely yet and was pleasantly surprised to see 2 Wood Sands.  It's totally criminal that this site isn't protected in some way, please if someone from the RSPB or whoever is reading get it sorted, not the YWT tho for fucks sake they'll just turn it into another North Cave!

Ok so the pics are shit but they're with the phone, if they were Lesser Legs it'd be job done and it saves me carrying round a proper camera.

Ok so my self found list isn't the biggest but it's not embarrassing either. There is one glaring omission though...... Temminck's Stint! I know I ought to have found loads but I haven't growing up at Fairburn it was a really rare bird and never on the radar to find really. Since moving to East Yorkshire in the mid 90's they seem to have got much commoner but I've still not managed it. So this week I'm gonna visit north cave gravel pits in the hope of laying that particular one to rest, no luck today though! Did shoot down to Spurn this afternoon for the Sub Alp just for want of anything better to do to be honest. Anyway got there just as Adam pulled it out of a net.




This evening I've been to The cinema to see TT3D- Closer to the edge, to give it it's full title. If you're into bikes you have to see it it's awesome, even if you're not into bikes it's worth a watch some bits might be a bit boring but it's pretty gripping stuff and well made

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The wind the last few days has been ridiculous, I can just about put up with the wind when birding on Shetland or when it's smacking out of the east and drizzly in Sept/Oct but I find birding in spring frustrating enough anyway with all the leaves on the trees making it harder to see stuff, most days seem to be one bird days unless there's a bit of passage to get stuck into.  So it turned out on Sat, I missed a Monty's that went through really early in the morning just as I was getting up and the only other bird of note really was this cracking drake Ortolan.