Super Saturday, Spurn Sunday and Monday Jinx

Saturday afternoon saw Danni and I watching the United/Liverpool derby and amazingly didn't end in a brawl despite supporting opposing sides. Sunday saw us head off early to Spurn hoping for a fall after the persisting easterlies and rain all of saturday. This wasn't completely accurate sadly but there were still lots of migrants about with Redstart, Pied Fly, Yellow Wagtails, Goldcrests and Willow Warblers about. The highlight came from the churchyard in Kilnsea, with a lovely Yellow-browed Warbler showing really well in one of the sycamores. To see a feeding YBW in a sycamore, calling loudly on the east coast is basically Autumn in a nutshell. Wonderful birds.

I managed to get some ringing done with several migrants ringed as well as two Lesser Redpoll. One adult with slightly rounded trail feathers and very glossy 'poll'. All the feathers were nice and neat, strong and fresh and came across very buffy. There was no obvious pale on the rump and there were ever so slight pink spots on the rump and upper breast. We also caught a 1cy male that again had a tiny bit of red on the breast and rump. This one had a distinctly pale grey face, paler rump and quite a lot of black on the face. This looked very similar to the Mealy ringed the weekend before at Migfest, but it wasn't particularly big, the greater coverts were buffy tipped and the overall colour was pretty warm, so just a pale lesser (perhaps from further north?). It does make you wonder the validity of the species though and also how many pale Lessers get reported and accepted as Mealy?

As I left Danni's this morning, I came home via Fairhaven and tried to see the Wryneck that's been present since Thursday afternoon. I gave it about half an hour and after about twenty minutes, it sat up on a prominent stick right in the open for about 15 seconds. Lovely birds and pretty much a Mega on the west coast.