Out of My Area: a weekend of my own

It is hand in for the MSc student dissertations on Monday. To avoid the general sense of panic, I've gone and hidden in Yorkshire for the weekend. It may seem a little extreme, but I get to go birding. It's BLISS! A few nights in the obs at Spurn, a couple of nights drinking Guinness in the pub with friends, and the chance of  some migrants.

I rocked up late with only a few hours of daylight to work with, so I started at Canal Scrape, ready to work my way south before dinner.

First birds of the trip, feeding on Canal Scrape

After Canal it was getting close to high tide so I sped on down to Chalk Bank to scope out the high tide roost.

Away from the Humber I miss the big wader flocks. It was fun to start dusting of my skills.

After grabbing some pasta Adam S and I headed toward Kew and ended up at the newly created wetlands; the terns were starting to stream over and the Avocets were busily strutting about in the margins.

New for 2012: Juvenile Avocets, right in front of the shiny Kilnsea Wetlands Hide

Sitting around at the Warren I heard Pete W shout a Marsh Harrier coming over from Canal; I got great views but awful pictures!

Great bird

As the clouds cleared and the light shone through I headed out on the beach at by Beacon Ponds to check out the little waders moving through. The wind was strong and many flocks were whipping past with the terns.

Cracking (and apparently blind and deaf) juv sanderling let me get really close up

In the evenings the tern passage was fantastic, providing plenty of commons and sarnies, with arctic, little and black thrown in.

My squeaky nemesis of 2010; I miss their sound...

Highlights from this trip include Barred Warbler, a great view of Ortolan Bunting, the cracking Avocets, catching up with the Obs folk in the pub, and putting on the air conditioning in the car in the blazing sun.

All in all, another fun trip, now just a 5 hour drive home!

Trip List (in no particular order):

• Common Gull
• Black Headed Gull
• Herring Gull
• Lesser Black Back
• Greater Black Back
• Med Gull
• Yellow Legged Gull
• Arctic Tern
• Common Tern
• Sandwich Tern
• Little Tern
• Back Tern
• Gannet
• Arctic Skua
• Shag
• Cormorant
• Grey Heron
• Little Egret
• Knot
• Sanderling
• Dunlin
• Turnstone
• Curlew Sand
• Common Sand 
• Wood Sand
• Redshank
• Spotted Redshank
• Greenshank
• Curlew
• Avocet
• Grey Plover
• Golden Plover
• Ringed Plover
• Shoveller
• Mallard
• Teal
• Shellduck
• Mute Swan
• Coot
• Moorhen
• Swallow
• House Martin
• Swift
• Winchat
• Wheatear
• Robin
• Wren
• Blackbird
• Linnet
• House Sparrow
• Tree Sparrow
• Blue Tit
• Great Tit
• Coal Tit
• Gold Finch
• Green Finch
• Reed Bunting
• Ortolan Bunting
• Pied Wagtail
• Grey Wagtail
• Meadow Pippit
• Pied Flycatcher
• Reed Warbler
• Barred Warbler
• White Throat
• Sedge Warbler
• Willow Warbler
• Wood Pigeon
• Collared Dove
• Kestrel
• Sparrowhawk
• Marsh Harrier

I've probably forgotten something, but oh well!