Croatia

Some nice birds seen whilst on holiday in Croatia. Loads of Alpine swift and probable Pallid swift. Red backed shrike were everywhere including seen from hotel balcony where I watched a male feeding a juvenile!. A walk up the hill into the countryside provided Spannish Sparrow, Eastern Olivaceous warbler, Sombre Tit, Black eared wheatear, Cirl Bunting, Golden Oriole and Blue rock thrush

Red backed Shrike

Trip to Flamborough produced a nice juvenile Red backed Shrike and some stunning butterflies including Common Blue, Red Admiral and Comma

Red Backed Shrike

Watched this stunner at Filey today.

Spurn

Went hunting for Red backed Shrike today as there had been 5 reported there yesterday and Dave still needs a male. Sadly only one was found, a female but still great to see and we had excellent scope views. We also had fleeting views of a Red breasted Flycatcher but no other rarities of note

Common Rosefinch

Back to Spurn today. Straight onto juvenile Red backed Shrike and managed some reasonable phonescope pics. Then got good views of a new species, Common Rosefinch. Nothing else interesting at Spurn so stopped off at Blacktoft Sands RSPB on way back and saw Little Stint female Garganey, Curlew Sandpiper, Greenshank, Ruff, Water rail and Spotted Redshank

Spotted Crake, Stilt Sandpiper, Wryneck and Red Backed Shrike!!

Classic birding day yesterday with all targets successfully seen. First stop Spurn where  I had crippling views of the juvenile Red Backed Shrike. We also saw the Wryneck that had hung around since last weekends fall but the views were fleeting as it darted from a bush. It was seen again in flight but no more after this. Also seen were several Whinchat, Redstart, Sparrowhawk and a female Crossbill. As the tide came in there were good numbers of waders including several very smart looking juvenile Curlew Sandpipers.
On the way back we stopped off at Neumann's Flash in Cheshire and had scope views of an adult Stilt Sandpiper. We then were undecided to either head home or go for the Spotted Crake at Belper Derbyshire. We decided on the latter and incredibly within five minutes of arriving with reducing light the Crake appeared and we watched it walk along the edge of reeds for several minutes. Sadly too dim for any photos.

Marsh warbler and red-backed Shrike

On Monday had a pleasant day motorcycle twitching! The bike needed a run out so I went east first to Blacktoft sands and had brief views of the Marsh warbler. Fantastic mimicry in the song and looked paler and more yellow than a reed warbler. I continued east and had distant views of a male Red-backed Shrike. Also got good view of a singing Lesser Whitethroat.