This morning I was searching for a rare vagrant from Central Asia. Having spent the last couple of days moving from garden to garden in Easington, near Spurn, I hoped the heavy overnight rain wouldn't have moved this unusual visitor on. There are two races of Oriental Turtle Dove (Streptopelia orientalis) - orientalis in Central Siberia and meena occurring in SW Siberian forest and lower mountains of Central Asia. This individual is considered to be the Western race meena, told from the former by white tips to the tail and a white belly. The white tail tips are shown nicely below as the dove stretched. Oriental Turtle Dove appears larger and darker than Turtle Dove and did seem a much chunkier bird. This was a new species for me and only the second in the Spurn area. I have to confess, it isn't a bird I would have contemplated seeing, nor travelling long distance should one turn up. All the same, any Turtle Dove is quite precious nowadays and well worth a look. With the wind in a South-westerly direction, Common Swifts were beginning to move down through Spurn and 2000+ had passed through, by mid-morning. I arrived on the Wetlands as 4 Spoonbills were in the air. They flew around for a short time before heading out to the Humber. One Spoonbill remained on the Wetland lagoon. Small numbers of Little Gulls came in from the North Sea, flying over me and making their way out to the Humber. Nearly all adult Summer gulls, with the exception of one juvenile seen. A number of gulls rested on the Wetlands, mostly Herring Gulls but with them, a young Great Black-backed, two Mediterranean Gulls and two Sandwich Terns.
Adjacent to the Wetlands, it was a good to see a Little Owl sitting out at Westmere farm. Comments are closed.
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