Jim's Birding: Spurn Point

In past years I have often visited Gibraltar Point NNR in September or October, in order to see migrating birds along the east coast. Often my daughter Katherine has joined me there. This year we decided to visit Spurn Point NNR and arranged to stay in the Spurn Point Observatory. We met there on Friday 21st September and departed on Monday 24th September.

The observatory was very comfortable, with good facilities and conveniently placed close to the main birding areas. During our stay we met various other birders,most of whom were very helpful.

The Observatory.

Friday

We used Friday afternoon to find our way around, so we visited several of the birding areas and did a seawatch for an hour or so. There was nothing out of the ordinary, the most notable being a Little Tern and five Bonxies on the seawatch, plus five Greenshank and a Whimbrel on Kilnsea Wetlands.

Saturday

The first two hours or so on Saturday morning was the most memorable for the amazing spectacle of visible migration. We stood at Numpties watchpoint with a number of the regular birders and watched thousands of passerines and hirundines fly low over our heads! Clouds of birds would appear to the north and fly over us and out to the point and across the Humber. The most numerous were Meadow Pipits (7000+), House Martins (5000+), Siskin (c750) but also numbers of Yellow Wagtails, Alba Wagtails and various other species. Apart from these smaller birds there was a significant movements of Pink-footed Geese flying south, with many skeins of 10-50 birds flying past. Many hundreds were seen during the morning.

It was thought by some of the locals to be the highest bird count of the year. It was interesting to see the local birders working together in order to count and record the constant flow of birds flying past. Unfortunately trying to capture these movements on camera was not possible as photographing small birds flying fast overhead does not work too well!

Pink-footed Geese - Lots of small skeins were seen.

After the seawatch and another breakfast, we visited the ringing area to see several nice species in the hand (see photos below).

Tree Sparrow - Quite a few were seen near the Obs.

Kestrel

Tree Pipit - The only one seen on the weekend.

Tree Pipit

Then we explored the "triangle" where many of the interesting birds are found. We walked south along the canal path which produced a flock of Pink-footed Geese on the Humber mud flats plus a pair of Roe Deer.

A group of Pink-footed Geese that decided to stop off for a short while. Presumably on route to North Norfolk for the Winter.

Roe Deer

We continued to the Numpties are and then walked north along the seaward side of the peninsula past Borrow Pit where we found a Whinchat and 5 Wheatear, plus some Little Grebes.

Whinchat - Seen near Borrow Pit

Reed Bunting - A very common species here.

Then a fairly long walk along Marsh Lane to Kilnsea Wetlands where there was a good variety of ducks, gulls, geese and waders. Most notable were two Curlew Sandpipers, several Mediterranean Gulls and about six Yellow Wagtails feeding under the feet of the black sheep. As we were leaving a Great White Egret flew in scattering many of the resting birds in all directions.

Above a selection of the very variable Yellow Wagtails. Click to enlarge

The Great White Egret scattering Black-headed, Common, Herring and a Mediterranean Gull

Some of the Greylags did not hang around either!

A seawatch in the afternoon was quite productive with 25+ Manx Shearwaters, a few Common Scoters, two Eiders, a Marsh Harrier flying in off the sea, one Little Tern, one Black Tern, lots of Common and Sandwich Terns, about 10 each of Bonxies and Arctic Skuas, a Merlin chasing a wader for several minutes offshore and eventually catching it and a variety of common waders.

We arrived back at the Obs to be told a Barn Owl had been seen hunting nearby and could be seen from the tower just 50 metres away. Sure enough it was still there being harassed by several Magpies.

Sunday

We started the day with a seawatch as it was soon apparent that the fantastic "viz mig" of the previous morning was not to be repeated. There was a good mixture of species but no stand out birds.

We explored the canal walk and came across eight Whooper Swans on the Humber, which had earlier been seen to fly in.

Whooper Swans - The only ones seen on the weekend. They only stayed a short time.

Then over to Borrow Pit but no sign of the chats from the previous morning. We checked out various other sites in the "triangle" before ending up at the seawatching hide late afternoon. The winds had turned more northerly and this changed the nature of the seawatch. This turned out to be an excellent seawatch with the star birds being over 25 Sooty Shearwaters, c40 Man Shearwaters, c40 Fulmars, c25 Bonxies, 4 Arctic Skuas, Kittiwakes, Common Scoter, an Eider, lots of Gannets, Auks and Waders.