Head Points to some great birds

After reading the words Eastern Olivaceous Warbler on Wednesday, and cursing as no time to go and see it, I was very relieved the bird stayed on until Friday morning.

Arriving at Flamborough knowing it had showed well, I was rather disappointed to see lots of birders walking north up the Old Fall footpath, and even more alarmed to arrive on the south side of Old Fall plantation to see a group of folk not looking at anything. However, after a moment or two all was well and the bird showed, albeit briefly. A few minutes later, the bird reappeared for about 5 minutes showing well and calling occasionally. First British tick for a while and another addition to my Yorkshire List - which I really should get counted up!

As the throng of birders increased, and the intelligence of the conversation, put politely, descended into any topic other than the bird... Ickys and Kentish Plovers... rather dull topics of several debates I couldn't really be bothered to listen to, I decided to discreetly leave and trundle down to Spurn.

With plenty of birds and 'birders' around, I opted to spend a few hours at The Narrows. Plenty of waders on the Humber, a passing Peregrine put everything up. The wader cloud in the heat haze looked like this. Not much chance of picking much out of this photograph, but it did make for a splendid spectacle.



A few other bits and bobs to see during the couple of hours I was there mid-afternoon. A couple of Lapland Buntings landed on the Humber shoreline before spending the rest of the afternoon bloggin up and down, 8 Little Egrets stood out well on the Humber mud as the tide receded, 2 Spotted Redshanks appeared, feeding constantly before flying south, but with the Buzzard count numbering 70+ south, I failed to connect with any despite searching the sky hard. With most birds distant to the west of the Warren, it was going to need some luck to add them to my Narrows yearlist.

Late afternoon I headed to the Point. The two Common Rosefinch showed occasionally and certainly one, probably two Barred Warblers were just north of the Heligoland trap. Though neither showed well, one showed briefly but no chance for photo.

Having driven past a Red-backed Shrike for obvious reasons,'just two many folk', I walked back to Wire Dump but no sign. Some birders that remained said it was in the middle of Chalk Bank bushes but no sign there. Eventually, I found it east of the road in some dead vegetation. Albeit distant for photos, I managed to get a record shot.