Sammy’s Savi Saves the Day

Picture purloined without permission from Spurn Observatory Blog

I don’t get out much – at least from the confines of Flintshire – so it was a long-awaited treat to have a change of patch for the weekend in the form of Spurn Point.

I had never been before – in fact the night before departure I was pretty sure that I had never seen the North Sea from land in my entire life!

The sense of anticipation was high then when 007, Stan, John and I headed off at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning.

My initial impression of Spurn was good: obviously the Point is superbly located to receive migrants, but the habitat – especially on the spit – is sensitively managed by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, encouraging good numbers of Hares particularly.

Bird migration on the first day was a trickle rather than a flurry, although there were a few grounded migrants including Yellow Wagtail, Whimbrel, and good numbers of Wheatears and the commoner Warblers.

It was Sunday morning that brought the big surprise. After trawling around Sammy’s Point a crowd started to assemble next to a ditch adjacent to the car park.

Our luck was in – somebody had heard a Savi’s Warbler reeling, but the key question was would this notorious skulker stick its head above the parapet?

The answer fortunately was yes, although not after it was ‘encouraged’ by an individual playing a recording of the warbler’s song.

I’m not too sure about the etiquette of this – mention of this was conspicuously absent from the Spurn website – but at least it afforded the gathering crowd tantalising glimpses.

After admiring a well camouflaged Grass Snake – miraculously spotted by Stan – I opted to walk down to the spit whilst the rest of the crew waited for a better view of the Savi’s Warbler.

A pair of Cuckoo’s on the ‘triangle’ were my first of the year, but there was another treat awaiting me at the canal scrape hide – a lovely female-type Black Redstart.

A search of the lighthouse area and point was fairly fruitless, so eyes turned to the water and a brief seawatch added Sandwich Tern and Red-throated Diver to the nicely fattening weekend list.

Little was the theme of Monday morning with Little Ringed Plover and Little Tern found around Beacon Pools.

Perhaps the only thing missing from the weekend was a decent fly through from a large raptor or perhaps a Crane or Stork. Despite keeping an eye to the sky it was hirundines that dominated the scene ...until we go home.

Just after we had left a juvenile White-tailed Eagle had drifted over. D’oh!!

All in all a superb, golden, riveting weekend...

Until later.