Water Rail, Mediterranean Gull, Sooty Shearwater, Long-tailed Skua, Wood Sandpiper, Grey Plover, Little Gulls
Went to Spurn with Stuart from our overnight stay in Driffield. Weather conditions initially weren't too good with driving rain although the winds were northwesterly which is good for seawatching. We initially had several Mediterranean Gulls in the fields leading up to the reserve, and then went to the Canal Scrape hide. We had a nice Water Rail performing well to the left of the hide, and also Pied Flycatcher here.
Pulling up into the Crown & Anchor car park, we met a chap who said he'd just flushed a Great Snipe, which had flown over the trees towards the Observatory gardens, but despite further searching, it was nowhere to be seen (and was reported on the RBA App as a 'probable' Great Snipe).
After a while we decided to do some seawatching and braving the rain, had several distant Sooty Shearwaters but no Skuas. Eventually we found ourselves at the Seawatching Hide and from there had many more Sooties, along with several Arctic Skuas and one distant Long-tailed Skua (though there were several seen while we were there). We also had a few Common Scoter, Red-throated Divers and auks, several Grey Plovers on the beach and after a while Stu and I wandered off across the fields where we had 2 Whinchats. Moving back to the hide, there looked to be some commotion, and as we arrived back at the group, they'd just seen a Leach's Petrel which we managed poor views of from someone's scope.
Back at the Canal area Stu found a couple of Yellow Wagtails on a fence, but there wasn't much else new to add to the list. We decided to have a look at Kilnsea Wetlands, where a nice selection of waders were visible, including a Wood Sandpiper, Knot, a single Ruff, Bar-tailed Godwit and various bits n bobs. Further down the road we had a good scan through the gulls in the fields and had at least 25 Mediterranean Gulls.
It was soon time to head back so we decided to call at Hornsea Mere, where we had two (possibly three) Little Gulls in winter plumage.