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...
