Spurn Migration Festival 2024

For the past three years Chris & I have been manning the Bird Observatories Council (BOC) stand at Spurn Bird Observatories annual migration festival. See here for more details. An event which I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to every year. This year was no exception and with winds forecast from the east expectations were high. There was also the added excitement of having the famous Lars Svensson as a guest speaker at the Friday night lecture.  Anyone with even a casual interest in birds or ringing will now Lars as the co-author of the famous Collins Bird Guide and his seminal 'Identification Guide to European Passerines' - for many years THE ringers bible and now on its 5th edition. First issued in 1970 I got my 2nd edition Svensson with the red cover when it was published in 1975 and spent many evenings abosrbing al the information and learning the latin names of all the commoner birds I was likley to encounter when training to ring at Wicken Fen.

With the weather looking good Chris arranged to pick me up at 06.00, which slipped to 06.30, so we could get to Spurn and get a few hours birding done before setting up the exhibition stand.  An uneventful journey saw us passing Spurn Bird Obs just as the news broke that Dawn Balmer had found an adult male Red- breasted Flycatcher in the Crown and Anchor car park. A few minutes later we'd pulled in to see this stunning bird. I've not seen many adult male Red-breasted Flycatchers and can only remember two others. A spring bird on Shetland, at Geosetter, and an autumn bird at North Collafirth so this bird was a real treat.

Just as we were about to leave Rob Horton arrived and informed us a Beeeater had just ben spotted about 2 km back up the road so we piled back into Chris's van to take a look. Passing two birders intently peering at something through a 'scope we stopped and I ran back to ask what they were looking at. Pallid Harrier........ a look at this and we arrived to the designated Beeeater site to find it perched on telegraph wires and making the occasional sally after a snack.

With time pressing we were about to head off to set the stand up in the main Migfest Marquee when the shout went up ' skua' and we looked up to see three Arctic Skua's flying overhead. An amazing start to our weekend. 

Setting up the stand we had tome to briefly see a Red-backed Shrike in the hedge surround in the field in which the marquee was situated before  going back to Kew to park Chris's van and set my tent up. Whilst talking to Rob again the Greenish Warbler that had been hanging around for a few days put in an appearance! We decided on an early meal at the Crown and Anchor before heading back to the marquee to listen to Lars Svensson. 

What an incredible guy and his contribution to ornithology has been outstanding. A proper ornithological legend. He's now retired and his interests are good claret, golf and birds in that order. The latest edition of the ' Svensson' ringers guide has a claret coloured cover apparently  in recognition of his favourite tipple. A bit star struck we introduced ourselves and got the great man to pose for a  photo with us.

Retiring back to the pub we met him again where he was enjoying a drink with his wife and the RSPB's Mark Thomas. 

After a rather late night in the pub Chris retired to his van whilst I endeavoured to climb into my sleeping bag in my single man tent.

We were both up early and after Chris had made us both porridge and a brew in his vn decided to go and see the Church field ringing site where Tim Jones was doing a ringing demo. Birds seemed to be everywhere with a good fall of Pied And Spotted Flycatcher's, Redstarts and several Wrynecks being reported.

By time we reached the marquee the 'Spurn Ladies' were well into their breakfast routine and the smell of bacon and eggs wafted through the air. Deciding it would be rude of us not to support them we both opted for and egg and bacon roll - even though we'd not long had porridge!  

Whats lovely about Migfest is the number of families there with youngsters. It's great to see so many young people enjoying the hobby and eavesdropping as to how many ' lifers' they'd already seen that weekend. It was also great to see so many familiar faces and make new friends.

Saturday was a hot day and as well as the birds it was obvious there had been a significant movement of moths overnight. Moth trapping at the Obs had produced a Many-lined a former breeding species that become extinct in the UK in the 19th century with the only UK records now being migrants. We decided to go and take a look and  as well as the Many-lined there was also a Clifton Nonpariel on show - another migratory species.

Many-lined

Whilst twitching this moth our old friend and ex-Cheshire county recorder Tony Broome messaged to say he'd caught an even rarer moth in his garden in nearby Easington - an Orache Moth.  A  quick call and we had an invite to come and see it and have a brew and a natter. Again this was a former breeder which become extinct and the only records now relate to migrants.

Convolvulus Hawkmoths were also a feature of the weekend with several being found around the marquee and even being seen flying in off the sea during a seawatch. This one decided to roost up on Neils truck tyre! 

Luckily for me and Chris the Great Newsome Brewery had set up a stand right next to the BOC stand and with their Tyto Alba bitter on draft we were able to cut our caffeine content and enjoy a couple of cold lunchtime beers. Theres a BBQ on tthe Saturday nght and we've usually been able to buy tickets when we arrive. Unfortunately they'd sold out of tickets before we arrived so we had to make do with going to the pub for dinner instead.

After another late night chatting with old friend Chris Galvin and putting the world to rights we retired to our respective accommodation and woke early the next morning to mist and rain. Once again we started off at the ringing demo, where Tim had caught a nice adult Lesser Whitethroat, before being guided by the smell of cooking bacon back to the marquee for a second breakfast. Slowly the weather improved and birds started being seen again with the Red-backed Shrike putting on a good show near the marquee.

The news of a Wryneck showing well feeding on ants on a garden wall had us taking 5 minutes out to go and see this cryptically plumaged member of the woodpecker family. Later, as we were about to pack up, news came through of another Wryneck showing really well on top of the cliffs at the nearby caravan site so we wandered across to take a look.

Beautiful birds and sadly extinct as a regular UK breeder. Back to the marquee to start packing up there was time for one more good bird when a Honey Buzzard was picked up flying distantly south! Our last bird of the trip but there was just time for one more good invertebrate when Megan found a Roesel's Bush Cricket  in the grass of the marquee flor. A new species for me.

We had a horrible wet journey home but were both tired but happy after a busy and enjoyable weekend.

Hopefully we'll be invited back to Migfest25!