East meets West.........

Brown-tail Moth larvae.

Long Bank,Spurn Point.

Six-spot Burnet Moth larvae.

Roller,by Andy Hood.

With the prospect of adding one of Europes most stunning birds to our lists,Dave and myself headed for Aldborough in East Yorkshire to look for the reported adult Roller that had been residing on the outskirts of this east yorkshire village and as we parked up,all the smiling faces indicated this beauty was still here.On first views,i was just struck by what a beautiful bird this species really is,particularly in flight when the striking combination of blue upperparts,deep blue primaries and secondaries and rusty mantle provided a superb spectacle.When first watching it looked surreal to see such a brightly coloured bird in the english landscape and it brought back memories of the Blue-cheeked Bee-eater which i had the privilege of seeing just up the road at Cowden in July 1989.It spent the majority of the time we watched it catching beetles on the ground,interspersed with visits to a wooden post and overhead telephone wires,but did go for one flight around its chosen field,when i likened the flight to a corvid.So with us enjoying our fill of this cracker,we decided to drive the short distance over to Spurn and spend the remainder of the day there.With no rarities reported here apart from a flyover Serin early on,we had a relaxed few hours seeing 3 Cuckoo which feasted on the Browntail larvae which covered the surrounding hawthorn and buckthorn bushes and as we sat enjoying a pleasant cuppa,Andy the warden let us know about a couple of Pectoral Sandpipers just up the road at Beacon Ponds,which had just been found.And 15 minutes later we were enjoying distant views of this pair of 'Yanks' as they slept and occasionally fed on the edge of the lagoons along with a mixed flock of other waders which included Grey Plover,Dunlin,Ringed Plover and a partially summer plumaged Curlew Sand which flew in and was a nice bonus.Also here we got great views of our most diminutive of terns,the Little Tern and they showed very nicely through the scope as they displayed,fed and bathed,lovely little birds and a pleasure to see and a great end to the day.Insects seen today included several Small Heath,Six-spot Burnet Moth larvae and the afore mentioned Brown Tail larvae.So what a great day out was had today,with one special highlight!.