Been meaning to write this up for the best part of a week but with everything else got sidetracked.

27th August I got up and drove to Spurn Head.  As this is the local patch for the great Martin Garner I was expecting great things.  So I pulled up outsde the little shack to be greeted by the parking attendant who took £3 off me for the privilege of driving 3 miles down a single track road through the dunes.  When I say road, there were some flattish stones scattered amongst the sand.  Half way along I was advised of a Whinchat so I pulled into the first layby at the side of the road and wandered over to 2 birders stood behind a screen.  Following there directions I could just about see the bush it was in with the scope and it was howling a gale so keeping bins and scope steady, even braced against the screen was impossible.  So I walked back up the track to get a closer view of this bush with, hoepfully some protection from the wind.

Sure enough, hunkered down at te bottom of the bush was a Whinchat, embarrassingly, a lifer given that they pass through the valley.  Anyway, back to the car to continue the suspension destroying drive to the point.  Parking in a small car park I wandered round the dunes for an hour to get Great Tit and Swallow.  10 minutes seawatching was exactly that, seawatching.  There weren’t even any fishing buoys.  A steady walk back to the car did produce Linnet, Tree Sparrow, Yellow Wagtail and both races of White Wagtail.

Other highlights on the beach were Herring and Common Gulls, a few Magpies and Woodpigeons knocking around and flyover Curlew and Black-tailed Godwit.

Back into the village for a reported Wood Warbler and Flied Pycatcher produced a Peregrine and ouse Sparrow but nothing else.

So I drove back to Blacktoft Sands RSPB reserve on the opposite side of the river.  By this point the heavens had decided to open and I spent 5 minutes in the car waiting for some relief.  The reserve didn’t dissapoint and produced a variety of waders.  Wood Sandpiper, Dunlin, Knot, Lapwing, Redshank and Spotted Redshank, Greenshank and Ruff.  Also present were Marsh Harrier, Black-headed Gull, Blue Tit, Little Egret, Grey Heron, Water Rail, Moorhen, Teal, Sand Martin, Pheasant and Robin along with my second lifer of the day: Black Tern.  Unfortunately I was running low on time and daylight by this point and hadn’t thought to consult my year list prior to going.  Had I done then I would have spent less time looking at Wood Sandpipers and called in the other hides to pick up Green.  My excuse, I was waiting for  Curlew Sand to turn up.  It didn’t.  Given that there were four of us trying to work out what time high tide was and so what time it was likely to appear put paid to that hope.

Worth it for the first double lifer day since August last year (Buff-breasted and Pectoral Sandpipers)