Bandit at seven o’clock!!

I was lucky two ways when I encountered the stunning male Red Backed Shrike on Sunday evening along the path between Beacon Lane and the Listening Dish at Spurn.

The evening sun was low behind the masked bandit, but a cool north east wind meant the shrike had to face into the breeze to avoid glare and hunt effectively, and frequently swept down into a crop of oilseed rape from the stunted hawthorns.

This meant I could sneak past its perch when the bird darted into the crop after bumblebees without disturbing it, and when it perched up again it would have its back to me, so would be unaware of my presence.

I got really close without freaking the shrike out as it did unspeakable things to Buff-Tailed Bumblebees.

Watched it for an hour – can’t remember enjoying a bird so much for a long time, although the local bees would probably disagree with me.

A gorgeous thing, at first I thought the shrike was going to impale the bees on the hawthorn spikes and briars, but it appeared to be just bashing the sting out of the unfortunate insects before gulping them down…

My hands shook in the cool strengthening north easterly, but I blatted loads of video anyway – you can see the results on YouTube here, here and here.

Magic watching it in the evening light – felt great to be back at Spurn.

Inspired and encouraged, I was out before 7am on Monday morning and as I walked north up Beacon Lane under low misty cloud, it was obvious the north easterly had dropped somewhat.

An Osprey came rowing across from the Humber passing just above my head before veering north up the coast towards Easington.

Marvellous.

I walked round to Kilnsea Wetlands, where the first bird I locked onto from the hide was a fine drake Green-Winged Teal – the Yankee dozed and fed in the shallows before flying out onto the lagoon to join a group of four Mallards.

Impressed by my continuing good fortune, I dabbled (sorry) in a spot of Green-Winged Teal video, which you can YouTube-ificate here.

Lovely long-billed quacker – time to stir the locals on the short wave before walking back to the car and heading north to spend the day chasing a fat blue bunting in Whitburn (see earlier post).

Vroom vroom!

Back in the civilised calm of Spurn, Tuesday morning started well with a Blyth’s Reed Warbler singing in the observatory garden, but as they usually do, staying hidden in the scrub, occasionally uttering low sub-song which was hard to hear over the din of a rattling Lesser Whitethroat.

Mist began to seep in off the North Sea, but it didn’t stop one of the local Cuckoos calling away from overhead wires, while a big Sprawk cruised for snacks…

Lured by news of Bluethroat, Icterine and Marsh Warbler down towards the Point I trudged down to the Breach and set off over the sands (it’s never as bad as it looks on foot, honest)…

As is often the way, my resolve faded before I got to the Lighthouse, so I strolled back as the mist thickened, pausing to admire a Spotted Flycatcher by the Warren – my first of the year.

Reasoning that dumetorum are more vocal later in the day (at least that’s what loonball Finns used to tell us) I headed back to the Obs garden later in the afternoon and the Blyth’s was indeed singing and singing louder than in the morning.

Still didn’t show though.

I needed to rethink my strategy so resorted to rakes of beer and a cracking chicken madras to concentrate the mind and give the warbler a break…

Strangely, while I certainly felt refreshed, the warbler still refused to play ball so I headed for the hills for an early night before driving back home over a saturated M62 today.

A fine few days – thanks as ever to everyone over there for the hospitality (you know who you are), that Red Backed Shrike was just the business!