Overshooting

Only 50 miles east of where I was supposed to be, I spent a few hours at Spurn yesterday, before circling back to my correct destination – hey, if birds can overshoot, why can’t I?

With a very strong westerly tearing across the place it was a bit quiet, and while I hoped for a repeat of the big Common Swift movement witnessed on the peninsula on Thursday, it failed to materialise.

A 90 minute seawatch was pleasant, if predictable for this time of year:

Spurn seawatch, 28.6.24, 1230-1400:

SWly f5, sunny periods, tide high 1050, 18c

Sandwich Tern 17

Little Tern 6

Common Tern 3

Little Gull 2

Guillemot 8

Razorbill 1

Gannet 14

Med Gull 1 ad

Kittiwake 29

Golden Plover 1 in off

Arctic Skua 1 dark phase

Everything was heading south pretty much, with commoner gull sp in the mix.

After staring at the waves awhile I wandered down to Kilnsea Wetlands where freshly arrived Icelandic Blackwits were in fine fettle – small groups dropped down from high in the north east to land in the shallows and immediately begin feeding and washing.

It looked like their first stop since taking off in Iceland, and numbers of the leggy chattering waders swelled to 81.

Little Gulls and Little Terns commuted from the Humber and Beacon Ponds, with a maximum of six of the gulls at any given time, and the terns were joined by Sandwich and Commons as they came and went.

The adult Little Gulls were stunners.

After an hour or so a small group of adults and second year birds finally dropped in just below the hide, for a point blank experience that took me back to the days of Seaforth and Crosby Marine Lake when bigger numbers used to grace our side of the Pennines.

Mesmerising little things, I snatched a few seconds of shaky video (on YouTube here) as Sarnie Terns screeched overhead and a few Swifts gamely tried but failed to get a movement going…

Surrealism

High summer is always a bit flaky on the marsh, especially when the sun comes out – a rare event this year that left corvids gasping today.

A quick look out from the Junction Pool corner could only be described as weird.

I still can’t get used to feral Black Swans and their brood, but there they were, bringing down the class of a lovely sooty spangly adult Spotted Redshank darting about in the flooded vegetation and a few Ruff in full breeding splendour.

Quackers were starting to look scruffy, apart from the Red Breasted Goose, reappearing, in fine fettle and apparently quite happy, with a small family group of Canadas.

Its limp is just about gone now, but it still feels plastic.

Three adult Med Gulls on the Junction Pool raised standards a bit, but it was a rum old mix of species, fence jumpers and wild, out there today.

The Sandplant Lagoon was feral soup with a dash of adult Spoonbill, and a single Dunlin dropped in to join the LRPs and other summer residents.

Blackcap and Cetti’s still singing and what looked like an early Brown Hawker whizzed past as I basked in the sun.

Stacks of Redshank today.