Birding and other distractions

My second day at Spurn proved to be every bit as good as yesterday, although the weather was not so nice, with some drizzle in the morning and then heavier rain for an hour or so after midday. Early news was of a Richard's Pipit near Sammy's Point. The bird was in a grassy field behind the paddock where the Amur Stonechat still resided. On occasions the pipit gave good views through the 'scope, my first Richard's for about five years. The Eastern Bonelli's Warbler that proved elusive yesterday was giving reasonable views in a cottage garden in Easington, and not surprisingly had drawn numerous birders to see it. It showed now and then in an apple tree on the edge of the garden, though I struggled to see it for a while. Then I set up my 'scope to view the area and eventually had good views of the warbler low down in the tree. Some birders had previously heard the bird call, and on this basis had identified it as Eastern, as such my first in the UK since Bonelli...

After leaving home at 5:30 I arrived in the Spurn area some five hours later after an uneventful journey. The birding day started at Sammy's Point, the coastal site west of Easington. The weather was quite pleasant, calm and dry. Walking along the riverbank the reported Pied Wheatear was soon located on rocks along the foreshore. A female type it was fairly active often flying down to the beach.  A little further on, in a paddock with scattered hawthorn bushes were several stonechats, one of which was an Amur (Stejneger's) Stonechat. The taxonomy of eastern stonechats is fairly complex though recent changes generally recognise Amur as a separate species from the closely related Siberian Stonechat. The bird was a female, pale in overall colouration, with peachy underparts, a buff throat and rufous-orange rump. Nearby a richly coloured male Common Stonechat gave close views on the fenceline. Whilst at Sammy's I heard that a Desert Wheatear had been found near the gas terminal...