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.

Friday 23rd
Oh my god! If you're reading this you'll already know about events of last night but to sumarise, some old cock (bless him) photographed what he thought was a Yellow browed at South Shields and put a pic online. The pic is on the link below.

http://www.birdforum.net/attachment....0&d=1256240551

Mark Newsome displaced West Yorks birder saw the pic and nearly died I should think. Britains first and long predicted Eastern crowned Warbler.
I was doing a training flight out of Liverpool in the morning so couldn't go straight away but intended to set off as soon as we landed.
I was on the ground by half one and set off north up the M6 and across the A66, trouble was the traffic was shite it took me 3 hours 40 and the bird didn't show before it got dark, contrary to the pager reports!
Fortunately my mate Cooky came to the rescue and offered me his sofa for the night so I crashed at his and had a few beers with him and Brett who'd also dipped having left Scilly and driven up from Penzance.

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.