Social distance birding

Last chance to get out birding for this month, so decided to go to Spurn, to see if I could add to my year list. I left York early and became slightly worried when I was close to the Humber Bridge and could not see the top part of the support towers. Once through Hull and past Hedon their was a light drizzle. Not enough to have the windscreen wipers on all the time, but I soon drove out of the rain.

My first stop was Kilnsea Wetland, and despite the fact that it was poor weather and still only 0730, the car park was nearly full.

The hide was full, so I walked onto to Beacon Ponds. The wind was blowing off the sea making watching difficult. Little and sandwich terns and cormorants were visible.

Sammys Point was my next stop. Dunlin, curlew, redshank and oystercatchers were busy feeding on the mud. One birder, 4 wood pigeons and a pheasant were all I saw on my walk around the area.

Canal scrape was my next stop, very quiet and the only bird I saw was this swallow.

This bird is still feeding young in its nest, which is on a ledge inside the hide. Meanwhile another pair of swallows are still nestbuilding in the entrance to the hide.

Back to Kilnsea Wetlands, and this time I managed to get a seat in the hide.

This greenshank walked past the hide as it was looking for food.

Snipe came closer to the hide as they looked for food, the ringed plover stayed further away.

Also on the lagoon were 2 spoonbills, lots of grey herons, black-tailed godwits, dunlin, redshank, common sandpiper, little, common and sandwich terns, shelduck, and knot. Chris joined me in the hide, and after he had been to Beacon Ponds to look for a black tern, we decided to go to Canal Scrape. People were working in the reedbed, so no sign of any birds, so we walked to the seawatch hide.

We joined a family in the hide, but maintained our distance.Gannets and terns were the only birds that we saw, and most of these were flying north. A hawfinch was reported again, so Chris went for a second attempt to find the bird, while I stayed in the hide. A few minutes after Chris left a dog came into the hide with its family so I left.

From the screen I was able to see lots of birds feeding on the mud. Golden plover and dunlin were the nearest and oystercatchers furthest away on the waters edge. A bit closer than the oystercatchers were some grey plover.

I joined Chris looking for the hawfinch and as we had no luck, we walked a short distance to look for red back shrikes and managed to see two birds.

The grey plover and red backed shrike were new birds for me this year.

It was nice to see Chris again, perhaps we might manage another outing next month, at a suitable distance of course!