Brown Shrike....Another Mega Find At Spurn!.....Monday 31st October 2016.

There i was working away at Scunny dreaming about the end of my 6-2 shift,when i received a text from Tim,saying the news i had wanted to see for some time....Brown Shrike at Spurn.
 My mind went into overdrive,what was i going to do.A phone call from Tim saying don't worry about going home,just get yourself to Spurn and you can use my gear.
 I decided to go home,get changed quick and head out and before i knew it i was over the Humber and heading through Hull.I drove as quick as possible,screaming at every single slow bloody driver in my way.
 As i entered Easington another welcome phone call from Tim,told me to park near the Warren gate and Pallas's pond,as the Shrike was still present and showing in that area.
 As i arrived the words i did not want to hear,as Tim told me the bird wasn't currently showing and had probably been flushed by a hunting Short-eared Owl.
 I quickly left Tim to join a few others along Canal bank,when there it was sat atop a hawthorn before flying further along the canal.The bird was very active and obviously feeding up before dark and more views of it sat on the edge of the reeds along the canal before it briefly disappeared and then it was sat on top of a hawthorn in the bushes at the back of Canal Scrape.It then dropped of its perch into cover and that was that.
 The whole time i had seen it,was probably just a twenty minute period,but at last i had seen this cracking asian Shrike,my second mega here from this stunning family of birds.
 On first views,the bird struck me as being a much richer toned plumage than Red-backed Shrike,with a larger head and much bulkier,longer bill than that species,what a fu###ng beauty!.
 I was so chuffed at eventually catching up with this superb species,after missing one,the second for Yorkshire at Flamborough in early November 2010.The only other record of this species in Yorkshire,was also at Flamborough in September 2008 making this the third for Yorkshire and more importantly the first for Spurn!.
 It was just another fantastic species to turn up this October,with it being by far the best autumn i have experienced in 30 years birding.
 As i chatted with Tim,now in a much more relaxed fashion,we watched as a Short-eared Owl hunted Canal Bank and the nearby Saltmarsh and 17 beautiful Whooper Swans honked their way south along the Humber as the sun set.
 A quick look in Easington on the way home had us enjoying some stonking views of the family party of Greenland White-fronted Geese as they fed at close range in a stubble field on the edge of the village.It was great to be able to study the single adult and three juvvies at such close range,just fantastic and a brilliant end to another excellent visit to this amazingly special birding area...albeit a bit of a hectic one today.

Sunset Over The Humber.

Whooper Swans Heading South.