Back east

I pulled into Kilnsea Wetlands car park yesterday morning for about 9am and got straight onto the two gorgeous female Dotterels that were scampering about the lush meadow below Long Bank.
Distant views at first, but a breathtaking 90 minutes or so with one later in the day fully justified my early morning dash east, skirting the rush hours of Manchester, Leeds and Hull.
Mist rolled over and back over the Spurn peninsula almost continually yesterday, promising plenty of good birds, when aerial manoeuvres by three Typhoons weren’t tearing the Humber a new one.
Ear-splitting.

A Wood Sand fed on the pool in front of the hide opposite Long Bank and a Great White Egret dropped in while I ‘scoped the Dotterels as they scurried through the damp grassland, their startlingly white superciliums shining out in the murk.

Neill Hunt and Tony Owen had motored over the previous evening and I met up with them for two great days birding, staying in the palatial splendour of Neill’s caravan last night (thanks for the hospitality buddy).
Yesterday we circled round from Kilnsea Wetlands to the Warren willing the mist to produce the goods and managed plenty of Yellow Wagtails, Brent Goose, Cuckoo, Spotted Flycatcher (quite challenging to keep up with through branches behind the Crown and Anchor after a liquid lunch… we were only there for the wifi honest), Marsh Harrier, Hobby and best of all, a stunning male Montagu’s Harrier.

The Monty’s banked in front of us as we walked along the Canal Zone, mobbed by corvids, before swerving back into the mist and melting away.
A Red Rumped Swallow picked up at Kilnsea Wetland dragged us back up there late afternoon, although we couldn’t relocate it, so we went for another hour or so with the remaining female Dotterel, which fed just beneath us on Long Bank, as the mist continued to roll in and out.

What a bird.
Today dawned bright and sunny, great for hordes of Orange Tips, Speckled Woods, Red Admiral, Common Blue and Peacocks, but a bit quieter on the bird front.
Neill still managed to find a brief Blue Headed Wagtail up near the “new” YWT car park, and a Marsh Harrier passed overhead at the Warren.
We completed two circuits of the Kilnsea – the Warren area, but as it felt slower than yesterday, we headed back west just after 2.30pm today.