Sibe Accentor 2

Out with Pete Watson on Sunday and it was back to Spurn again for Pete to see and me to get some pics of the still present Siberian Accentor, it was feeding in the compound where the Olive Backed Pipit was last weekend so we saw it well enough but photographing it was a challenge, then it started raining and the bird disappeared somewhere so we thought we’d head for shelter at the Canal Scrape hide, we stopped for a quick look at some Tundra Bean Geese near Long Bank on the way, the hide was full of birders with nothing much going on in front so we eventually moved on to the Bluebell car park, the rain was forecast to last three hours or more, they weren’t wrong, as we emerged from the car when the rain finally subsided we espied a rather bedraggled Shore Lark feeding around a puddle. We walked the triangle next and at Corner Field a handful of Lesser Redpolls were accompanied by a couple of Mealy’s, we carried on to the Crown and Anchor car park where a Pallas’s Warbler had been reported but all we found was a Yellow Browed Warbler and a few Siskins then news came over that the Radde’s Warbler along the Canal just up from Cliffe Farm was showing, we went round and joined the throng and eventually got a couple of brief views but the bird remained very elusive, a Jack Snipe dropped in while we were stood there, we moved along to the other end of the Canal where a Dusky Warbler was supposed to be showing but when we got there nobody seemed to be looking at anything so we headed back to the car, a few Brambling were down Beacon Lane. It was mid-afternoon by now so we thought we’d have another session with the Accentor, it had returned to old schoolyard where it had originally been found and although the light was against us we did a lot better than in the morning, we finished off at Sammy’s Point where there were masses of Thrushes, lots of Fieldfares coming in this weekend, still one or two Ring Ouzels plus Wheatears, Redstarts etc.  

a bit of a challenge to photograph in the Gas Terminal compound first thing

Tundra Bean Geese by Long Bank

a rather bedraggled Shore Lark

Siskin in the Crown and Anchor car park 

session two, back in the old schoolyard but looking into the light

Grey Plover on the foreshore at Sammy's

Redstart

lots of Fieldfare dropping in over the weekend

still one or two Ring Ouzels around

plus Song Thrushes