A tale of two Pipits or what a load of Bull

Easter weekend with two days birding planned and the winds looking favourable, Friday I headed off to Flamborough with Mark and Paz as the Tawny Pipit from last weekend was still present and had been showing well all Thursday plus a whole host of common migrants had been seen as well, well as the saying goes what a difference a day makes, there was no sign of the Pipit this morning despite the field being scrutinized by a good turn around of birders nor was much else seen, there must have been a clear out overnight, a few Sand Martins over Thornwick Pools were about the best of it. With nothing reported from anywhere else on the East Coast by mid-afternoon we decided to cut our losses and head inland to North Cave Wetlands, Dryham Ings had several pairs of Little Ringed Plovers, nesting Avocets and a White Wagtail amongst the many Pied then as we were searching the hedges for Warblers news came over that the Tawny Pipit had been seen again, it was a dilemma but we knew if we didn’t go and it turned out that it showed well all evening we would kick ourselves so we returned to Flamborough, a Buzzard was seen near Driffield on the way, sometimes its better to be ignorant of news, we arrived on sight, a handful of birders already present had not seen the bird and we learned the claim had come from brief flight views halfway up the field, not the best of days.

we flushed a buck Roe Deer down Old Fall

LRP at North Cave

Out with Mark again today and we were joined by Pete Watson this morning, we had decided on Spurn chasing after another Pipit, this time a possible Blyth’s in a field near the Gas Terminals at Easington, the bird had been reported early morning but when we arrived we learnt an organized flush had failed to find it again, another flush was planned for a bit later, we had a wander around the Easington area which was fairly quiet returning to the field for the next flush but again it failed to locate the bird. We spent the rest of the day birding the Spurn area, there was a handful of common migrants about including a small flock of Arctic Terns over Sammy’s Point, we managed to get a few year ticks but it was generally pretty quiet and by late afternoon we were on our way, we just got through Patrington when the Pipit was reported again so we turned around and went back, a bit deja vu this, and again as on Friday it turned out to be a load of bullshit, some birders had got there within 5 mins of the news going out and found no bird no birders nothing, so a weekend of full of Eastern promise turned out quite disappointing in the end, still you can’t win em all as they say.

Willow Warbler playing hide and seek