Spurn and Hornsea - 22nd August 2020

 

Putting the previous weekend behind me, I was all pumped up for a day in East Yorkshire, with the morning at Spurn and the afternoon at Hornsea Mere where a large gathering of Little Gulls were gathering.

On the way north, good numbers of Common Swift were crossing the M62 and I had a single Red Kite on the way. Road closures in Hull meant a detour through the city, which added quite a bit of time to the journey but it couldn't be helped. 

We stopped first at Kilnsea Wetlands, where there were three Curlew Sandpipers and a Little Stint along with good numbers of commoner waders. 

Common Snipe

Curlew Sandpiper

At Spurn I immediately heard and saw a Whimbrel flying along the Humber. I headed for the sea-watching hide where a few people were set up. There were three more Whimbrels through, otherwise it was quiet. Giving up the half-hearted sea watch I approached the viewing screen on to the humber as an Osprey was moving through. It was initially close-ish but by the time I had watched the bird and got my camera fired up it gained height and headed away as a Peregrine began to pursue the larger raptor. 

A nice moment.

Osprey and Peregrine

I returned to car for lunch and then headed around the canal scrape and along to the triangle where a Red-backed Shrike had been reported. I was shown the bush it had been in, but it didn't show while I was there and I settled on a male Whinchat as consolation.

We headed north in the early afternoon and arrived at Hornsea Mere at around 2pm. A guy with a scope said he had been there and hadn't seen any Little Gulls. 'What - not one?' Was my response. With up to 600 birds in the area, it would be bad luck to not see one!

Undeterred, I casually wandered over to the jetties opposite the cafe and three Little Gulls were loafing at the end, in company of an odd-looking Tern, which I decided was a 1st summer Common Tern.

Common Tern

                                                    Little Gulls

I got some nice photos of the birds before heading to the sea front, where the birds are also meant to congregate, but there was nothing doing. On returning to the mere, around 100 Little Gulls were swooping over the water. Thunder and crackles of lightning and a leaden sky put paid to any more birding and I headed for the shelter of the car before the heavens opened.

Frustrating day in Norfolk

 

I had now cancelled three holidays owing to Covid-19 and my poorly mother. With the money saved on not going to Shetland, Scarborough and North Wales, I was keen to get in some nice day trips.

I was half-tempted to go for a Gull-billed Tern in Suffolk, but it seemed a long way and would be quite expensive even with my taxi friend giving me generous mate's rates. I thought Norfolk looked promising after a fall at Spurn, thinking stuff would filter down.

First stop was Titchwell, where after the obligatory track and trace, Ruff were right next to the hide. Otherwise there were a few Dunlin, Ringed Plover, Common Snipe but not the hoped for Little Stint and Curlew Sandpiper.

Ruff

Walking to the beach, it was fairly birdless, but all the action was on the foreshore with both Black-tailed Godwit and Bar-tailed Godwit and Sandwich Tern fishing close in and I took a photo of one carrying a Smelt in its bill.

Black-tailed Godwit

Bar-tailed Godwit

Godwits

Sandwich Tern

With nothing to keep me at Titchwell, we moved on to North Point Pools near Wells-next-the-Sea, where there was a very distant Wood Sandpiper, a Greenshank and three Spoonbills. News that three Long-tailed Skuas had gone past Cley, sounded promising, so we parked at Coastguards in the brisk north-easterly winds. I'm not sure if I should have stuck it out but after an hour nothing but Sandwich Terns were all I had to show for my efforts. 

A glance at Birdguides showed that an Icterine Warbler had been seen in the 'Dell' at Wells Woods. 

Wells-next-the-Sea was rammed with tourists and the car park by the pool was nearly full. However we found a spot and I headed into the woods. It had been a while since I had visited the site and I quickly realised that I wasn't sure where 'The Dell' was. Norfolk Birds describes it as 'A shallow depression at the back of the coastal dune and pine belt which is full of Silver birch scrub and trees.' I was later informed that it is an open grassy area with trees on three sides. I'm still not entirely sure. 

In any case, I spent over an hour traipsing through the wood, seeing virtually nothing, when I discovered the tit flock that the Icterine Warbler had been consorting with, a stone's throw from the car park. Apart from a family party of Lesser Whitethroats, a Common Whitethroat and a Blackcap, there were some briefly interesting juvenile Willow Warblers, but no 'Icky' and I didn't even see one of the 13 Pied Flycatchers that had been there earlier - presumably having moved through.

I can't say it was a bad day, but I felt a bit deflated on the way home, and thought that I should have done better.