Hornsea Mere

51 Species

@ 12:38 Jacko gets the usual monday text off Kemp to say he had f*ck*d work off cos he can't be arsed and the weather is lush. Jacko had no work on either so 10 mins later Kemp was round Jackos. A quick trip to for Kemp to go to the sh*tter, get his handheld camera and don his blues and we were on the road, Spurn point being our destination. We stopped at BP garage on Hedon Road for fuel and refreshments and started ticking. Starling from the garage car park was number 1. On the way to Spurn we saw Common Gull, Woodpigeon, Blackbird, Magpie, Great Tit, Carrion Crow, Rook and Lapwing. We got through Patrington and visibility dropped from about 10 Kilometres down to about 10 Centimetres. We decided to sack Spurn off! A quick U-turn and we were on the main road to Withernsea and en route for Hornsea Mere. Through Withernsea we ticked Herring Gull, BH Gull, Collared Dove and House Sparrow. Next we stopped for a smoke and a twitch at a place called Fitling. We added Moorhen, Chaffinch, Pied Wagtail, Robin, Mistle Thrush and Fieldfare to the list.


Also a wader dropped into the field we were overlooking but we are both sh*t at waders (and warblers) so we couldn't ID it. Fags finished we continued on to Hornsea Mere. In the field before the Mere walk Kemp Twitched Greylag and Canada Geese and their were Jackdaws on the house roofs. 22 species so far and we were'nt even there yet!
Parked up opposite the Hornsea Mere footpath we got our benny hats and handhelds and got cracking. Mallard, Tufted Duck, Coot and... Jacko shouts "what the f*cks that!" , Kemp : "BITTERN!". Get in there!!! A lifer for both of us and a good bird for Hornsea Mere we thinks??? Anyways we was buzzing our little tits off :D :D :D
Carried on the walk and other birds we got in the 1st field were Wigeon, LT Tit, Wren and Goldeneye's trying to break their necks!!!
On to the next field and another Nice surprise with a funny looking Gull that turned out to be a Barn Owl hunting over the reeds. We both got record shots with our sh*t cameras but ya can sort of see what it is...


While running round the fields for a better pic of the Barney we saw Meadow Pipit, Pheasant, Goldfinch and Blue Tit.
In the next couple of fields there was not a lot going on but we did come across a big pile of feathers and a freshly decapitated crow sp. (the head was nowhere to be found)... Frig knows what elusive killer had whacked it???


We got to the road and the farmer was cutting the hedge so we had no chance of a hedge sparrow round here. We contemplated looking in his waste collection for a dead one but couldn't be arsed rooting about so we cracked on toward the house. On way we got Cormorant, Mute Swan, Treecreeper, Song Thrush, GSW and a fine looking bird with a tight arse walking her dogs! At the end of our walk (at the house with the feeder ; ) ) Greenfinch, Coal Tit and Goldcrest were added. About turn and we were on our way back to the car again. On the way we saw a pure white female pheasant. Is this rare? Has anyone come across this before? We again saw 'THE' Barn Owl also Reed Bunting, Gadwall, Shoveler, GBB Gull and Kempy ran after some Bullfinches for a decent pic with the Bullfinch song ringing out from his mobile! HaHaHa!


Then Jacko picked out a smart looking Long-tailed Duck "billy no-mates" on the Mere. Our last find of the day was to be a cracking male DUNNOCK that Kemp found just before we got to the car.

With the sun setting and the fog coming in we were happy with our afternoon of chav-twitching at the Mere. Some good birds on our day list (we think so anyway) and a few record shots too with our FUJIFILM S5700 sh*tty handhelds!