Tales From An Essex Birder

 With a fleeting visit to Yorkshire on the cards due to some family business, I found a free morning to do a bit of birdwatching in a county that I seldom get a chance to visit. After serious consideration, I opted to stay local - deciding on Nosterfield Quarry and Reserve as my location of choice. A recent Osprey that had been lingering around the reserve was certainly an alluring prospect. An early start saw me in the car en route to the location at half 7. Seeing some slightly ominous signage stating that the quarry was not responsible for any damage inflicted on cars, I decided to cover my possessions with the throw I had lying on the back seat. Whilst ensuring the security of any possessions, I noticed a distant Lapwing flock which seemed to have been alarmed by a bird of prey. However, a distant scan revealed nothing of note.  I inferred the birds' disturbance as a sign that I needed to get a move on as my target bird was very likely the cause of this disturbance. After...

 And....... breathe. After an incredible weekend in the field, I am now faced with the tricky task of writing about it in a way that can truly capture all the excitement. This could be a long one so buckle in... Day 1 - 09/09/22 6AM. My alarm goes off and I uncharacteristically jump out of bed before loading the car and setting off swiftly - my aim being to maximise the amount of time that I spend at the birdwatching Mecca that is Spurn. After 5 hours of driving I was finally greeted by the sight of Kilnsea Wetlands on the approach road to Spurn in addition to the myriad of birders that was only going to multiply over the weekend. After parking up and setting up my tent with relative ease, I set off on my first walk with the hope of connecting with my first rarity of the weekend - a juvenile Citrine Wagtail that had been lingering around the Riverside Hotel.  A Tree Sparrow feeding in the Observatory garden on the walk there was a good sign. And It appeared that my good run o...

After what can only be deemed as a successful twitch the day prior, I was praying that I hadn't used up all my luck as today was the big one. Having ummed and arred about whether to go, I caved in and booked a £65 train ticket to Bempton Cliffs in the hope of seeing Albert - what can only be described as a bucket list bird. Having booked the ticket a week in advance, I had been keeping a keen eye out on news of the bird. Reports that it was only seen at 7:30 am the previous day and failing to return certainly had me nervous for the following day. Finally D-Day had come around and I arose at 5am to gather my things and head to Liverpool Lime Street bracing for the 4 and a half hours and 3 trains ahead. Well on the way to Bempton by now, the first reports of the morning were negative - which only served to increase my nervousness. Would all this time and money be for nothing? However, at around 10 am news came through that the bird was back at its faithful cliff by staple news viewpo...

After visiting Spurn for Migfest 2019, I fell in love with the place. Seeing a Barred Warbler in the hand, as well as Marsh Warbler, White-rumped Sandpiper and my first ever Skuas provided a magical weekend - one that has been documented in the archives of this blog. Fast forward 2 years; a global pandemic has prevented me from returning to this wonderful place. The understandable cancellation of the festival in 2020 was heartbreaking to me and meant that I had to wait yet another year to return to the place. But after seeing another years worth of mouth-watering sightings coming from Spurn, the time eventually came around for my second ever Migfest. Having managed to buy my weekend ticket prior to them selling out, I made the decision to do the long drive myself. So after a 5 hour drive in which I saw a Great Spotted Woodpecker , a Red Kite and even managed to year tick a Grey Partridge , I arrived at Spurn and began setting up my tent... Day 1 - 10/09/2021 After setting up the tent,...

After all the hype and great things I read about Migfest on Twitter last year - and seeing some of the incredible birds that Spurn draw in - I simply couldn't resist going to the festival. A 4 hour drive and a flyby Tawny Owl somewhere in Lincolnshire saw us arrive at our chosen B&B for the night, before heading down to Spurn the next morning for day 1 of MigFest. Day 1 - 7/9/19 As it was my first time at Spurn I genuinely didn't know what to expect. So when we turned up at Westemere farm to pitch up our tents and were greeted by the worn down barn, I must admit I had a brief moment of slight concern (which soon disappeared)! After pitching up the tents we decided to head down to the Seawatching hide in the hope of seeing some lifers (as I have very little experience with seawatching). On arrival, a large crowd greeted me as well as vast amounts of Gannets (lifer) with a good passage of Sandwich Terns and a Fulmar (lifer). However, my seawatch only lasted around ...