The Spurn area sounded good today with only it's second ever Savi's Warbler (only other was 1984) recorded at Sammy's Point - technically just outside the Spurn recording area I guess but not by far. The winds are set for SE for a bit so there could be more following on from the Red-rumped Swallow and Bee-eater from last week and today's Savi's. Typically elusive I'm glad I had good views of the Old Moor bird last spring otherwise I might have been having a frustrating evening...
Back home over the weekend I added Willow Warbler to my garden list, my 70th garden tick, and today a great surprise as a Cuckoo flew towards North Duffield Carrs over the back behind the house, number 71! A very pleasing addition to my garden list!
Common Cuckoo © Gabriel Buissart 2007
There has been some 'interesting' reports over the weekend, firstly a Cretzschmar's Bunting in Dorest that didn't materialize into anything (though there was an Ortolan in the county), a Rufous Turtle Dove was apparently photographed in a Suffolk garden but has not been seen since (with some grainy shots and talk of dodgy goings on) and today a probable 'dark-phase' Booted Eagle was reported in Lincolnshire (at the same site a White-tailed Eagle was reported 4 days ago)...
I'll hopefully get into the Lower Derwent Valley for a bit of patch work this week at some point to see what I can catch up with. I might try and connect with Ollie and Jono's Water Pipit at York University too. Then there's the Black Scoter too...
Spoke to a Dorset local yesterday and apparently the Cretzschmar's was seen by a guy that used to live in Cyprus! He seemed to think that depending on how good the description was that it might even get accepted! First thing I'm gonna do when I'm back is stay by the Hes East lakes till I get the Water Pipit!
ReplyDeleteThanks Tim, really interesting about the Bunting!
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