Spurn 8th October

Nineteen of us met at Spurn Head yesterday and enjoyed a really memorable day. I had described it beforehand as arguably the best migration site on mainland Britain and it certainly lived up to that billing. Major arrivals (or “falls”) of migrants aren’t common events, so to be present for one yesterday was very fortunate. From first light there were hundreds, indeed thousands, of Redwings milling about, Goldcrests seemed to be in every bush and one flew through our group, paused to land on a tripod and then continued on its way. There was a spectacular arrival of Ring Ouzels and we enjoyed numerous views of these often elusive birds. The American Wigeon was found amongst its commoner cousins, a Short-eared Owl flew around, a Yellow-browed Warbler performed nicely and Jack Snipe bounced on the Canal Scrape. A seawatch in the afternoon produced Red-throated Divers, a Manx Shearwater, at least two Arctic Skuas and excellent views of a pair of Great Skuas which lumbered their way south.

It comes to an excellent total of 93 species. Not every bird was seen by everyone.

My thanks to everyone who attended and helped with what was a rather special day. If you want more information on what was seen at Spurn yesterday (25,000 Redwing, 125 Ring Ouzels!) it can be found at:-

https://spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk/sightings/10/2023

Paul Doherty