WYKE BIRDING: Spurn, 29th June

Thursday, 2 July 2015

Spurn, 29th June - 2nd July

29^th JUNE

Got up to Spurn around lunchtime and a walk in the afternoon produced excellent numbers of breeding Avocets with 11 big chicks and 5 small chicks on Kilnsea Wetlands and another 3 smaller chicks on Beacon Lagoons where the 70+ Little Terns were very jumpy forming tight flocks and heading out to sea several times as if a raptor was around but I couldn’t see anything.

Other birds seen included two Mediterranean Gulls on Holderness Field (a second summer and a first summer) along with a juvenile Black-headed Gull, a pair of Gadwall, 2 Herons, 7 Little Egrets, a Greenshank and single Little Grebe and Tufted Duck.

30^th JUNE

Opened the nets first thing at The Warren where I caught a selection of fledglings including a Lesser Whitethroat, 2 Whitethroats, Great Tit, Tree Sparrow, Robin, Dunnock, Meadow Pipit, Swallow and a Magpie; around 60 Swifts went south in the hot, sunny and calm conditions along with 3 Siskins, a Grey Wagtail and a few House Martins while on The Humber on the dropping tide were 9 Little Gulls, 25+ Golden Plover, a Whimbrel and 60+ Curlew.

A jaunt down the point was unremarkable with about 4 singing Lesser Whitethroats and a couple of Kestrels the only birds of note.

1^st JULY

Not much through the breezy but warm morning; I caught two young fledgling Blackcaps and Kew before we checked the Sparrowhawk nest in The Crown carpark (one small chick and three eggs in the process of hatching) and walked through the Little Tern colony at Beacon Ponds where we ringed a few chicks but there weren’t too many to find.

A walk in the afternoon was more productive with a 3 Teal, a Green Sandpiper and an adult Curlew Sandpiper on Holderness Field, a juvenile Cuckoo by the Listening Dish and single 1^st summer Little Gull and Mediterranean Gulls roosting on Beacon Ponds with a few Knot, Grey Plover and Dunlin. There was now a pretty strong onshore wind blowing which produced a few birds at sea including a close group of 5 Manx Shearwaters along with a few Gannets and Fulmars (but I only looked briefly with binoculars!).

2^nd JULY

A few hours standing at Numpties before my train back south produced around 2,100 Swifts heading south (by 08:30) as the wind had moved round to the west with the majority of the birds taking the line along the Humber shore so we couldn’t catch any. Other birds included a Hobby which bombed past so fast that none of the Swallows around The Warren had time to react, a Little Gull and a few Sandwich Terns and Little Terns.