cliftonbirding: Still misty on the Eastern front

Took a couple of days off this week to go birding with Mark who is on holiday all week, the weather forecast looked really good for the East coast but unfortunately the mist persisted. We headed to Flamborough on Tuesday but it was really foggy all day nevertheless there were loads of winter Thrushes, Robins and Goldcrests about as well as a few Chiffchaffs and Brambling but we never found anything better with them and with news piling in of rarities both to the North and the South it became quite disheartening by mid afternoon.

Flamborough birds in the murk

a rather interesting looking Chiffchaff

Looked a good candidate for Siberian but never called

a more typical individual

Wednesday was a better day, with news of a Bluethroat at Easington late Tuesday it wasn't hard to decide on Spurn. We arrived at Easington with news the bird had been seen so we headed off and joined the small group of birders gathered at the Northern end of the Lagoons but no one there had seen it at that point, we started to scan, there were a few Robins flitting around, a handful of Goldcrests moved through and a Wheatear skitted around the beach behind us, but no Bluethroat, eventually we decided to move a bit further back to a small spit of sand that would allow us to see further into the corner of the Lagoon and as we did two birds flew up, one was a Robin the other showed some nice rusty patches to the tail base, we'd got it, it initially flew up over the bank but it wasn't long before it returned to the same area, over the next half hour or more we enjoyed good views as it fed in and out of the edge of the reeds, occasionally chased off by Robins it always returned to its favoured area, a bit far for the camera and it was never out in the open long enough to try and digi-scope it. We carried on to Spurn and took a walk around the Sandy Beaches/Beacon Lane area, again there were hundreds of Thrushes and Robins, a Black Redstart was on the Concrete blocks and we flushed a Short Eared Owl at the far end, we eventually ended up at the Canal Scrape where we hoped some Thrushes might be close to the hide, they were plus there was also two or three Ring Ouzels here although they didn't come close, and a Jack Snipe flew in then disappeared then gave itself up when it started bobbing, several Swallows passing through were a surprise. The weather forecast had been for mist clearing in the afternoon, it was the other way round, it had been a clear if cloudy morning but then the mist rolled back in around lunchtime and although not as bad as at Flamborough the day before there was a fine drizzle in it which eventually started soaking everything. We had a drive down the Point and the Thrush numbers were just incredible, they were all along the peninsula, quite a few Bramblings too, the tide was in so there was a good selection of waders by the Narrows and at the Point there was a cracking male Black Redstart and a couple of Mealy Redpolls, but again the real biggie failed to materialise.