Hornsea walks

I took a few walks over the weekend around Hornsea Mere and along the cliffs in dry-ish weather although the wind was still chilly and quite strong.

On Saturday afternoon I picked up a bird flying in from the sea and soon made it out as a Sandwich Tern - my first of the year. I watched for a while as it turned north and flew towards the breakwater so I walked that way and had good views as it preened and was knocked off its perch by a Herring Gull. It was joined by 2 others before they all flew south.

Sandwich Tern digiscoped with the phone camera

Sunday morning brought a walk down Southorpe Road towards Wassand and a good haul of warblers and finches in the hedgerows. First off a pair of Yellowhammers feeding and flitting about

Yellowhammer

Greenfinch, Chaffinch and Tree Sparrows were making a noise both sides of the road and Swallows were zooming overhead singing away too. A very satisfying start to the walk.

Several Chiffchaffs were calling in the trees a little further down with a Willow Warbler, and further towards Wassand Hall a Blackcap was singing. Two Whitethroat were singing and adding their wonderful song to the mixture so nearly a full house of the warblers I hoped to see - just Sedge and Reed Warbler left to tick off.

Linnets and a pair of Lapwing were the next birds along my route and a Skylark was up and singing in the brief sunny spell. A couple of Reed Buntings were singing in the reeds at Snipe Grounds south of the Mere and the Sedge Warblers were now making themselves heard too. This Sedge Warbler was ringed but there was no chance of making out the details.

ringed Sedge Warbler

Skylark over the fields

At last I picked up the song of a Reed Warbler and had decent views of it soon after. Over the Mere there were good numbers of Swift, Swallow and House Martin but although I spent a fair amount of time scanning the Swifts there didn't look to be anything exciting among them.