Spurn!

It's never really officially Autumn until you see a Yellow-browed Warbler in a Sycamore or hear Redwings migrating. With a quick trip over to Spurn on Tuesday, I got to experience both. It wasn't quite the trip we were expecting as the two days prior had been fantastic and the continued eaterlies raised our hopes. Sadly, a clear night on Monday saw a big clear out and left only a handful of migrants. We managed to see a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers, 3 Redwing, a Wheatear and lots of finches. One thing we did miss and by only about 30-40 seconds was a juvenile Pallid Harrier which appeared in the Triangle and carried on south. We were on Beacon Lane at the time and had a mad dash north as everyone was following 'it'. We got poor views and saw what we thought was a small ringtail harrier. We were therefore surprised to learn that the Pallid was a juvenile. It later turned out the the harrier we saw was actually a Hen that u-turned and went north and the Pallid moved south. I guess the small size could mean it was a juvenile male or was just more distant than we thought. We later missed a male Bluethroat and a Red-breasted Flycatcher, but that's birding.

Late afternoon we stopped into Heysham Outfalls and saw the moulting adult White-winged Black Tern which took some searching but was a nice bird to see (espcially over the sea). Danni and I are off to Turkey tomorrow on an all inclusive holiday. It is purely a relaxing holiday, but don't worry, there will be a blog post upon our return as there is a river and reedbed next to our hotel and I know there are White-spectacled Bulbul, Spanish Sparrow, Syrian Woodpecker and Graceful Prinia within the resort grounds! Here's hoping for a wonderful holiday in a new country!