Coast

Gibraltar Point, early doors

In our usual perverse fashion, we went to Lincolnshire on Friday night because there were lots of good birds turning up in Norfolk and East Yorkshire.

Camping is usually filled with experiences to delight the senses; unsurprisingly, it was bloody cold at night, but we added Little Owl and Barn Owl to our tent list (Bittern is probably still the best bird on it).

The absurdly well-equipped (internet, gas heater, fairy lights) campers in the tent next to ours kindly loaned us their battery-powered airbed inflator, which was nice. Later on, they had a noisy argument, which was not so nice.

A wander round Skegness seafront early on Saturday was next to useless, due to thick fog which persisted until about 1pm. If there were any good birds, they were invisible. Eventually we went to Gibraltar Point (nice cafe) and wandered around the dunes. There weren't many birds around and nothing was moving, but a Yellow-browed Warbler gave itself away by calling from an inaccessible bush.

We'd nearly finished trudging around when a last look along the road revealed another Yellow-browed, flitting around in an Elder bush - briefly.

Sunday morning was less foggy, and sunny briefly before the sun got up behind the clouds. The skies were a bit more lively, with skeins of Pink-footed Geese heading for Norfolk, the odd Redwing, Brambling and plenty of Siskins and Redpolls.

photos taken with Canon Powershot A640

Gib

Tempted towards the east coast by yesterday's reports of juicy migrants (Wrynecks, Barred and Greenish Warblers, flycatchers of varying hues, and just... stuff), we went to Gibraltar Point today.

Speckled Wood

Green Sandpiper

Fortunately, there was more than a Green Sand there (though it was the only wader to pose for photos). The Long-billed Dowitcher and Lesser Yellowlegs were in front of the same hide (Jackson's) and showed reasonably well, if a bit distantly. Also a gaggle of Greenshank, a large gang of Black-tailed Godwits and a slightly more subtle Garganey.

There was a constant stream of Swallows passing south, along with a few Swifts and House Martins, and a Hobby. As we wandered along the shore, we watched a couple of Red Admirals fly ashore - into the wind - presumably just having crossed The Wash from Norfolk!

Not much else about, though.

digiscoped photo taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 77 with 20x eyepiece

Skegness

For about the first time this autumn, the wind had turned easterly, so I thought it might be a good idea to visit the coast. Most people in this neck of the woods automatically head for Norfolk, but I fancied something different.

Inspired by the Further Adventures of Kevin Du Rose (who always has rarities coming to eat out of his hand while he's sitting on Skegness seafront, or something like that), we left for Lincolnshire early-ish on Saturday morning.

After a wander around Skegness itself (the dunes and scrubby bits, rather than the amusement arcades and other delights), it was evident that there was some Serious Migration going on. A Brambling wheezed overhead while a couple of Lesser Redpolls... 'chipped' (or whatever it is they do) and dozens of Redwings seeped in.

[I had a great bacon sandwich, as well...]



However, we didn't find many Goldcrests and birds on the deck generally seemed to be around in small numbers. Time to head to Gibraltar Point. On arriving in the car-park, we heard that a Ring Ouzel had been trapped and was going to be released at the observatory [which isn't really as grand as it sounds; it's a small, dark concrete shed].


A pretty nice bird, which called obligingly as it was released.

More walking around through the dunes and along the beach. Redwings were calling all the time, literally having just come in from the continent. Some dropped into the buckthorn immediately as they made landfall, while other stayed in flocks of 30-40 and went further inland. They were easily audible but not always easy to see - they looked more like clusters of midges some of the time, they were so high up.

That's the overriding memory of the day for me - the Redwings coming in.



However, this unusual 'installation' was also of interest... I've no idea what's going on, but possibly someone hung a piece of lost property on the dead tree once upon a time, and now it sports a range of gloves and assorted footwear.

[Another pic of it here, on www.geograph.co.uk, an interesting site...]


Everything's A-OK.

A variety of stuff from the hides:

Grey Plover


Redshank


Lesser Black-backed Gull munching on local crab


Curlew

So, what happened to the rarities, you may ask? Don't ask me. Despite a few hours working the Plantation hard - very hard indeed- we even struggled to find many Goldcrests. Never mind a Yellow-browed Warbler, which was what I really wanted, or a Firecrest.

Another day...

photos taken with Nikon Coolpix 995 + Leica Apo Televid 62 with 16x eyepiece