Thursday 22nd

There were a few more birds around today but nothing like I was hoping for. Other sites seemed to fair better than Spurn for a change best birds were a sibe type chiff at the gas terminal first thing which I didn't see very well but was giving a good call, a Firecrest at the point and a steady trickle of stuff moving south. Mid afternoon I went back to the gas terminal with Wozzer who picked up a Pied Fly, pretty late that and it showed a faint grey collar. A quick check of it's age revealed it was an adult and with a primary patch on the large side for a Pied but nowhere near big enough for anything else plus the extent of white in the tail any brief hopes were soon forgotten.

Whilst a Kew Paul caught this Chiff which he' d got down as an 'abietinus' there were a few around approaching this in colour but any that called sounded normal, in the filed the green tones evident in the pic were impossible to see, I'm starting to think these eastern chiffs are as bad as eastern lesserthroats!!!

Wednesday 21st
25mph doesn't sound fast really does it, it is if it's a south easterly wind! And if it's accompanied by rain we should be tripping over birds, surely. Well not today, went out for about 5 hours on the coast and saw one party of Starlings come in off, one small group of Redwings drop in and a few Blackbirds. Where are all the crests?
I guess the winds aren't coming from that far east being off the bottom of a low thats just come across the Atlantic. Fortunately it's moving east, dropping a bit and with a high over Scandinavia and more rain tonight it should produce stuff tomorrow. Fingers crossed

Strange weekend, not quite as strange as last weekend admitedly but still a bit unexpected. First off I became single, then a Bluetail turned up at Spurn, not really all that strange until another one turned up!!! So as well as having the record count for Raddes (8 in one day, if I remember correctly) and Pacific and Little Swifts in the same day its now become the first site to have multiple Bluetails on the same day.

I got shit views of the first one on Sat as it was shown to the crowd in canal scrape car park, it was just too busy so I kept back and only saw it's heed. The second bird at the point was only seen by the finder until Sunday morning when Spenner refound it. It showed briefly late morning as it almost trapped itself then finally did the job at around 5pm when it flew back into the heligoland.

Although it may seem ridiculous to suggest this the fact the bird may have been in the trap bushes all day begs the question was there a 3rd bird? There was a sighting half way to the green beacon on the point only 10-15 minutes before it showed in the trap mid morning. Whether this was the same bird being highly mobile then not moving all day or another one we'll probably never know but it makes you wonder.

I was also pleased to learn on sat that the South Gare Pipit had been photographed well and proved to be a Richards after all. I'd rather it was a Blyth's but in all honesty it was never a good candidate.

Had to take a trip to south gare today for a possible Blyth's Pipit. Got there about 7 and had a thrash round but it initially appeared it had gone, probably didn't help that only 6 people were looking for this potential first for the county! Anyway it was eventually found but was really flighty and we couldn't get any decent views of it. After flushing from range about 6 times mostly before we could even see it and then when we could it just about let you get a scope on it and it was off, fecking bird just wouldn't cooperate and being in a crowd that had now swelled to about 30 brought me right back to reality after Shetland.
Anyway the bird flew south for ages and was lost around 10ish. When it flew this last time it looked big and long tailed, to me it was a classic Richards, it did call and I thought it sounded like Richards too, but it was windy and I will admit to finding these two species difficult at the best of times. Looking at the pics it looks large billed, long tailed and the mantle and head streaking are within the range shown by Richards. The adult median covs visible also look pointed so all in all I can't find any reason to supect Blyth's Pipit. The lads who saw it yesterday though are adamant it looked small alongside meadow pipit and looked short tailed and horizintal stance with a good Blyth's call! I did have a nice juv Long tail fly right over my heed at about 30 foot whilst looking for the Pipit early doors.

Seawatching mught be good tomorrow so I should be in the coast early.

Called in on the way home to see the Buff breast at Saltholme pools but no sign. Met up briefly with Dave Braithwaite one of my old college lecturers and Toby Collett who also went to Bishop Burton they both work there Dave being the site manager and Toby a general dogsbody and WWF wrestler lookalike with his daft facial hair! They've done a remarkable job of turning what was basically a shitty little roadside flood into a proper nature reserve!

Speaking of shitty there's a bit of a furore starting to build up over the Hooded Merg that's in Cleveland. Let me first say I've absolutely no interest in this bird it's shit it's also plastic as a bondage suit. The trouble is the bloody BBRC accepted the bird in Fife last year and it looks like this might be the same bird so as I was passing on my way south I had a look for about 4 seconds then fucked off home.



Dodgy plastic duck rubbish!

Well where do I begin? What an eventful night Sat turned out to be. I've been staying in the hostel in Lerwick when on mainland Shetland usually with Gav or the others I was on Foula with, but with them all gone back to real life I ended up sharing a room this time.
The bloke I was sharing with was up fron Orkney for a music festival and I didn't see much of him as I was out all day birding and he was out 'fiddling' all night!
Anyway he comes in about half 3 on sun morning, I was asleep but vaguely recall hearing the door, next thing I'm semi awake and feel something touching my arse! I spin round and he's beside my bed getting a drink of water from the sink, I'm not sure if I was just aware of his presence and dreamt it so lie there to see what he's upto. After a while with him moving round the room opening the window and curtains he's at the foot of my bed near the door doing something with the lock, then he proceeds to lean forward and gently lift the duvet off my legs, it's at this point I realise the dirty bastard is knocking one out with his other hand!!! I'm up out of the bed really sharp with rage coursing through me and give the cunt a proper kicking. Somehow he manages to get the door open (he must have put it on the latch) and runs off. I get dressed and go after him but can't find him so wake the warden who chucks the fucker out of the room. I still can't quite believe it happened the dirty twat

Anyway back to the birds I was up and out early to make the most of my last day and started by finding the goldie flock nr mainlands stores north of the turning to Boddam. The yank was soon picked up and showed very well, it was one of the closest birds but still too far for any pics.
With no wind at all I decide to give the Sumburgh area a miss and go straight to Quendale I figure the trees here will be easy to work. I'm pretty pleased with my efforts turning up a Marsh Wrbler and a tristis type Chiff which unfortunatly won't call. as I'm about to leave Paul Harvey and Roger Riddington arrive and a short time later find a Spotted Sand! At least it was at the coast end of the burn where I didn't go.



Typical view of the marsh Warbler!



As near as it gets, without calling?


A quick check of the Virkie willows produces a single Yellow browed but nothing else so I decide to check Geosetter again. About 2/3 of the way up to the steep ravine part I get brief views of a Shrike in the willows, after about 2 hours all I've managed is two closish but mostly obscured views, mega distant views sat on thistles with no scope and a few flight views. I last saw it flying up the ravine and nearly an hour later have lost it so I decide to jack it in. Something is niggling me though so I put news out and sayin prob Red backed but can't rule out Brown and go see the Pechora at Veensgarth which shows well but too brief for any pics, shame cos at one point its sitting on a fence in perfect light.



Bum shrike views!

The time to go home has arrived so I had to book my ferry back to Aberdeen this morning. Tried for the Sabs that had been reported but an hour or so if looking at all the Gulls in Bressay sound produced nothing, well not nothing there's a few Kittiwakes but no Sabs.

I intended to start in the Sumburgh area and gradually work my way north but after seeing no other birders for the first hour sumburgh farm area was suddenly innundated with them so I made my excuses and headed north to look for the yank goldie at Boddam, couldn't even find the flock so when a message came through from Rob Fray about a Bonelli's at Ellister I went for a quick look. A chiff in the same trees had a very smoky grey heed which seemed odd can't remember seeing one quite like that before, didn't get any pics unfortunately it's an interesting bird.




Shame it wasn't going 'chip'


I stumble on some cracking habbo at Geosetter which looks monster but fails to produce the expected first for Britain! I have to make do with a Pied Fly and a few Goldcrest.
Early afternoon the weather closes in and I decide the best way to spend time is by trying to find the goldies, which takes some doing but eventually I have them....at about a mile in pissing rain, the only grey things I can see are the clouds! I have a kick round Quendale but only manage to unearth a lesserthroat.
With the rain easing I go back to Sumburgh which is now birderless, fortunatly it's not birdless and I set about the quarries/farm/hotel/grutness area but only have a couple of lesserthroats, a blackcap, a possible loco and lots of Thrushes, the only trouble is they are all Redwing, Songies and Blackbirds...Surely just one Black throated isn't too much to ask?

Last day tomorrow I've got to go home and sort some work out or I can't eat!