Kentish Plover: Despite the dreadful weather producing constant driving rain we had a brilliant start to the weekend with Spurn's 17th Kentish Plover, 1st since 2000 and a lifer for me!
After getting gripped off with the recent Manchester bird, due to working away in London I was thrilled to finally get this bird in the bag.
Curlew Sandpiper: I attended the event with a good friend and fellow ecological consultant Tom and decided to camp, we also bumped into many friendly faces including Ian Igglesden and Scott Reid.
These gents shared more than a couple of drinks with me on the Saturday night in the Crown & Anchor pub and subsequently paid for it on the Sunday morning with one big hangover!
Spurn is a truly special place with it's geographical location and position, it is famous for the way birds funnel through Spurn during their migration.
Dunlin & Curlew Sandpiper: The festival is a celebration of the spectacle of bird migration from Spurn and around the world. Offering guided walks, bird ringing demos and plenty of expert talks.
Dunlin: Tom and I saw two cracking talks one from Mark Pearson about the work of Filey Bird Obs that was full of brilliant images and stories of finding some rare birds and what Filey has to offer.
Wood Sandpiper: The second talk was from Bjorn Malmhagen and David La Puma about their own migration hotspots, Cape May Bird Obs and Falsterbo Bird Obs. I thoroughly enjoyed this talk, the two blokes were brilliant, informative and engaging
For me what makes Spurn Migration Festival so good and an event to attend again and again is Spurn itself and the offer of some great birding to be had.
Wood Sandpiper & Ruff: This is a good comparison between Ruff and Wood Sand. Kilnsea Wetlands was the place to be on the Saturday we had two Curlew Sandpiper, plenty of Dunlin, Common Tern, Bar-tailed Godwit, plenty of Yellow Wagtail and the bird of the weekend the Kentish Plover.
On the Sunday we were treated to cracking views of a single Wood Sand foraging in front of the hide.
We also had some good vis mig (visible migration -birders love using their own language) with reports of over 5000 Meadow Pipit moving through although we only saw a small fraction of this.
This was the second time I have attended Spurn Migration Festival and it keeps on delivering and remains a highlight of the birding calendar, I look forward to next year.
For more info see below:
www.spurnmigfest.com
www.spurnbirdobservatory.co.uk
