Two Shrikes in a day!

I had read a lot about Spurn Head and fellow bird watchers told me it's one of the best sites for bird watching. On Wednesday evening I went to my local bird club and I got talking to another member, and he said Spurn was a fantastic at the moment, so me and my dad went home and prepared food and equipment to go the following day.

So yesterday off we went, just before entering the reserve we stopped off to have a look what was about. There were Golden Plovers, Ringed Plovers, Redshanks, Dunlin, Turnstones, Shelducks, Blackbirds, Robins, Sedge Warbler, Mistle Thrush and Starlings.

The day on the reserve started off a little slow, but by late morning we heard there was a Red-backed Shrike at the point, 2 bird watchers were going to look as well, so we went and had a look together. It was a great success, the shrike appeared and we had great views. There were 2 Restarts and a Spotted Flycatcher as well. The 2 people who were with us said there was a Woodchat Shrike at Sammys' point, I had wanted to see one of these for a few years. We didn't know the area so the 2 people we had made friends with showed us the way, and yet again we had a good view, it flew off but when leaving the car park it was in a tree next to the car, so the view was fantastic.

We went back to Spurn to watch one of the best wildlife spectacles there. We were next to the Bird Observatory it watch the numbers of Knot build up on a sand bank a little way up the spit. One of the bird ringers said we could get closer because there was a bird hide in front of the bank, so off we went as quick as possible. We waited for about half an hour, the numbers of Knot buildling and buildling on the bank, among the Knot were, Sanderlings, Dunlin and Grey Plover. There must have been over 20,000 Knot. It was fantastic.

I had two new life species at Spurn, but I will be going back in a few weeks.