I take the bus to Ottringham, where I start of the walk. The walk is on very flat, exposed terrain so a bright day with little wind seemed ideal for it. Ottringham I didn't mind repeat visiting and the wide open never ending fields and straight roads paid off with some nice migrants. Swallows are back at Ottringham too. Soon after leaving the village a Buzzard was soaring, then a few minutes later it flew over carrying a vole. I visited Sunk Island and Stone Creek in 2018, during my walking the Humber series, where I wrote about the strange history of the island and its name. It is a massive area, reclaimed from the Humber and therefore very flat with the land virtually all devoted to intensive arable. In a field where wheat is starting to grow, three Lapwing are dispersed, one of them looking like it's making a scrape. Two Shelduck and a Little Egret flies over. The road is lined with trees, which add some shade and interest. I cross the North Channel and the Sunk Island drain and I am now on the island.
Shortly after 'crossing' onto the island I spot a bird on a glowing rapeseed field, a Whinchat! On the same field there is a Reed Bunting. I plough along the straight road, not even trees or hedges along it. Sunk Island village is made up of a church and a school at a crossroads, with farms spread across the island. Although Stone Creek is just a boating compound on an inlet at one end of Sunk Island, I decide it adds to the interest of the walk, as I will have lunch by the Humber. I popped into the Churchyard and record some plants and bees. The Rookery is noisy and Jackdaws fly overhead. I turn right at the crossroads and head towards Stone Creek. Yellowhammers call 'zit' from the hedges. A female and then a male Marsh Harriers quarted over the fields. As I get to Stone Creek, on the coastguard cottages I spot a Tree Sparrow. Sadly, Iit's been a while in the Holderness series that I've seen one. I sit down on one of the compound ramps to a boat and watch the Teal, Redshank and Curlew feeding on the creek. A Grey Plover arrives, landing quite close to me. A Marsh Harrier, then a Kestrel flies along the saltmarsh. Before I leave, I scan the distant saltmarsh and mudflats for seals and I see three, quite distant and hard to photograph with the heat haze, most likely Common Seals. The highlights of the way back is a Wheatear and a Corn Bunting, both on the same field of the Lapwings, just by the garden centre. I am quite happy with today's migrants. I do some recording around the bus stop at Ottringham and I head back home, after a total of about 22 km walked.
