Easington today

Was hoping for an Olive Backed Pipit today but afraid we failed there miserably. The pipits were not seen today, probably long gone. The Great Grey Shrike was easily seen from the cemetary where there was also a redstart. A cracking bird. A flock of twite were in the car park at Sammy's, drinking and bathing in the puddles, but these were soon flushed by a local dogwalker.  A little bunting was called in the village, but this was only seen by a couple of people before it flew. We seemed to miss more birds today than we saw but that's the nature of birdwatching. We still had a good laugh in great company.

Hatfield Moor fungus

Decided to have a day closer to home so tried for the pallas's warbler at Hatfield Moor. Well when we got there it was blowing a gale and after chatting to the local birders, decided we were looking for a needle in a haystack ! Still, we had a lovely walk and came across these beautiful fungi in all their glory.

Bird highlights were the bullfinch below and a group of goldcrest, no pallas's warbler !

Gibraltar Point

We were hoping to get to Norfolk today for the redflanked bluetail that had been at Stifkey for the last couple of days. The weather had improved slightly and this bird had obviously thought it was the right time to be off. We headed south to Gibraltar Point thinking we were nearly in Norfolk if this bird showed ! It didn't but we still saw some good birds. Plenty of black redstarts around and ring ouzels noisily moving though. An olive backed pipit at Spurn came on the pager.............lets hope it stays until the morning.

Spurn and Easington with a Bluethroat and supporting cast

With the big falls of birds at Spurn on Monday and Tuesday and the continuation of easterly winds,  we just had to go there on Wednesday. The Bluethroat was still at Easington Lagoons which showed after a while. It was still quite foggy and the bird was distant, so the photos are the best we could manage. It was a new UK bird for us taking Karen's total to 328.

Driving down the road to Spurn, the fields were simply full of birds, a spectacular sight. The totals for Monday and Tuesday amounted to 1100 robins, 100 ring ouzels, 2270 blackbirds, 11,000 fieldfares and 23,000 redwings. Now that is some count !

The fog seemed to get thicker as the morning wore on and by lunchtime it was raining. A couple of jack snipe flew in but the fog made photography almost impossible as we were struggling to see the other side of canal scrape !

Rutting Red Deer

With the fog lifting slightly this afternoon, we called in to watch the local red deer rutting. Many males were bellowing and running around so we didn't like to get too close. This really is a sight to see. A distant male had his antlers 'trimmed' and was strutting so proudly !

You can also see on the photo above a 'white hart' fallow deer, the herd was very skitty with all the red deer action going on.

A lovely weekend, pity it has to end!