A last hurrah

I headed to Gibraltar Point in Lincs yesterday with Mark Dawson, a site I don't know very well, but which Mark does. To cut 8 hours of birding down to a few words, we didn't see very much - the east dunes were very quiet, and the west dunes and Sykes Farm weren't much better. We amassed about 5 Chiffs, a Blackcap, 4 Brambling, a few Goldcrest, Robins, Siskin, Redpoll, and Fieldfares; the only birds around in any number were Redwings. And that was about it! However, it was a useful orientation exercise. 

So, when we heard about a Red-flanked Bluetail just up the coast at Chapel Six Marshes, we decided to cut our losses and go and see it. This was to be Mark's third of the autumn (all in Lincs), but my first. We soon located it in the pine plantation south of the carpark, where Alex Lees and companion had found it earlier in the afternoon. It was extremely elusive, giving us a couple of brief looks and then disappearing, and I couldn't manage a photo of it. Chapel Six looks a great little site, compact and workable.  

As I am away next weekend in Herefordshire, unless this autumn's run continues into November, that may well have been my last birding trip of the autumn. However, I've got lots of ideas for birding the Lincs coast in 2017...