Autumn Watch

I was leading the York Bird Club field outing to Spurn today, we weren’t really expecting much with the winds still being westerly but there had been a few bits around yesterday. We started near the Gas Terminals at Easington where a Firecrest had been reported yesterday but there was no sign of it this morning and the Police took objection to us being there and moved us on, we headed for the Crown and Anchor car park and had a good wander around the area, there was a good selection of common stuff flitting about, some of the group had a Short Eared Owl but there was no sign of yesterdays Common Rosefinch although we heard the female Scaup was still on the pool near the Bluebell and a couple of Jack Snipe were on Canal Scrape so we went off to see them, typically shortly after we left a Hawfinch was found. After we had seen the Scaup and Snipe we decided to have a little seawatch, apart from a single Arctic there were no Skua's passing today but a few Ducks were moving plus a steady stream of birds coming in off, mainly Skylarks and Redwings but six Grey Herons made an intriguing sight. Mid afternoon we heard that the Common Rosefinch had been seen behind the Church at Kilnsea so we headed off there, unfortunately it had soon gone missing again although there were several smart Bramblings there and a bit later news came over that the Hawfinch had been trapped and would be released at the Crown and Anchor car park, here we were also able to do some celebrity watching as the BBC Autumn Watch team were at Spurn today and presenter Michaela Strachan came down for the release, we ended the day back at Canal Scrape for another look at the Jack Snipe which was showing a bit better than earlier.

Celebrity watch, Michaela Strachan at the Hawfinch release

Master of disguise

reveals himself