Donna Nook

Given that the weather forecast was looking quite promising, I decided to head over to the Lincolnshire coast this morning and see what I could see. I don't know the Lincs coast at all well, so went to the only place I've been several times before - Donna Nook. I got there just after 6am, and incredibly I only saw one other birder in the six hours I was there - and that wasn't until just before midday. 

I was hoping to kick a Wryneck out of the dunes, or maybe come across an Icky amongst the good numbers of warblers in the coastal scrub. I looked at every Linnet in case it was a Rosefinch, and scanned the tops of all the bushes for shrikes. But I didn't come across any of those! In fact, the best birds I could muster were a Whinchat near the start of the track that heads north from the carpark, and at least 4 Pied Flycatchers in the sycamores at Pyes Hall, with another Pied Fly along the track, where there was also a Wheatear. 

Whinchat

Pied Fly

Wheatear

There were plenty of warblers to look through - mainly Common and Lesser Whitethroats and lots of day-glow yellow Willow Warblers, plus single Garden, Reed and Blackcap. Also in the area were at least 5 Yellow Wags, a juvenile Hobby, and single Swift. Waders included Spotted Redshank, Ruff and several Whimbrel, and I also had a small party of c.10 terns which came from the west, flying out to see - I only caught the tail end of them as the disappeared out of sight above the dunes, but the looked like juvenile Arctics. I also saw my first Walls for a few years, actually in reasonable numbers once the rain stopped.

Wall

Slightly disappointed not to have found anything more unusual, I then paid a quick visit to the dunes at Saltfleetby, somewhere I've never been before. I met two (old) birders in the carpark and asked them what they'd seen; "a few birds" was the response. Anything in particular? "No." was the short, sharp response. I thanked them very much for their help, and caught one of them giving me evils as I looked back over my shoulder. Bizarre. Anyway, I quickly realised that the half-an-hour I had available wasn't going to be long enough time to look for a Wryneck - there was too much ground to cover! I made do with another Whinchat, and several more Walls, and cut my losses. Annoyingly, a Red-backed Shrike was located in this area late afternoon; I just hope it wasn't the two miserable old ****'s from the carpark who found it.

I pulled in a quick look at Collingham Pits on the way home, where an adult Yellow-legged Gull, 3 Greenshank, 2 Green Sands, a Common Sand, 7 Ringed Plover, 3 LRP and a Dunlin were all on Ferry Lane Lake. The Idle Valley continues to intercept all the decent waders before they can make it down here!