Raining Wrynecks....The Spurn Area,25.08.2013.

With Saturdays roll call of 12 Wryneck along with good numbers of common migrants in the Spurn area,Sunday morning saw Chris and myself making our way to this superb migrant hotspot in the hope of scoring a good days birding.We arrived in overcast conditions and it was fairly breezy also and it was a little while before we started seeing our first migrants,but as the sun broke through the migrants began to show with the first of 2 Wrynecks being seen at the southern end of the Canal,for some time perched together,which was great to see.These were the first 2 of a very good total of 7 birds seen through the day,which was slightly overshadowed by an incredible 27 birds recorded over the whole area.There was one bird which was showing at incredibly close range along the roadside between the Crown and Anchor and the Bluebell and it showed down to about 20 feet while it fed on ants,mainly from cracks in the footpath,a fantastic encounter and a great chance for all to gain some superb images of this stunning bird.Our second visit of the day to Sammy's Point not only saw us getting some excellent views of the common migrants present,which included several lovely Pied Flycatcher and Wheatear,but we also got our first Icterine Warbler for several years.This bird showed well on and off and was a very nice edition to our days sightings,being a lovely,subtly marked bird with a lovely lemon yellow wash around the face,silky white underparts and solid white panel in the wings.Migrant totals for us didn't really tell the real picture over the recording area,but were respectable all the same and included the following:17 Whinchat,12 Wheatear,14 Pied Flycatcher,10 Willow Warbler,3 Common Sand,3 Whimbrel,1 Green Sand and 1 Wood Sand.Non avian sightings included hundreds of Roesel's-bush Cricket,several Short-winged Conehead,both species stridulating from the rank grassland,several Wall Brown and a couple of the ever present Roe Deer.

Common Snipe,Canal Scrape.

Wryneck,Kilnsea.

Wryneck,Kilnsea.

Wryneck,Kilnsea.

Wryneck,Kilnsea.

Juvenile Wheatear,Sammy's Point.

Juvenile Pied Flycatcher,Sammy's Point.

Whinchat,'The Triangle'.