East Riding of Yorkshire Part 1

Day 1-2
Jackie and I, usually have over the last twelve years or so, have led groups in East Yorkshire but this year we decided to spend a week birding the area on our own, and catching up with friends.  So on the 14th October we set off from Dorset to Flamborough where we had rented a house for the week.  Well the weather was pretty foul when we left and en-route we travelled through various strengths of rain storm.  A couple of days before we left a Red-eyed Vireo, an American warbler, had been found at Easington and we were keeping an eye on the news and updates.  We were travelling along the M62 in sunlight and Easington wasn't far away and we could be there in less than an hour so instead of taking the junction to take to our holiday home we headed for Hull.  As we were entering the outskirts of the city the weather deteriorated and the forcast said it was in for the evening and wouldn't clear until early morning.  So we decide to head for Flamborough and chance that the bird wouldn't move on once the weather broke.  

Next morning though it was very wet the rain had broken and the forcast was good until the late afternoon.  So we headed for Easington about an hour away and duly arrived  and I dropped Jackie off near the site and parked the car.  By the time I had walked back and joined Jackie, who had already seen the bird, were waiting for the vireo to reappear.  Some fifteen minutes or so passed before it reappeared and I managed to get a good view, a British tick for Jackie and myself.  We watched it feeding and moving around the trees for sometime.  Jackie then asked what now and at that moment a Arctic Warbler had been found at the Crown & Anchor car park at Kilnsea, which seemed the obvious next location.

Red-eyed Vireo - Easington © Nick Hull

As we approached the The Crown & Anchor there must have been close to a hundred birders all over the road pouring into the car park.  We made the quick decision to go to the Canel Scrape hide first then have lunch and then return.  At the Canel Scrape hide we did quite well with a Jack Snipe, two or three Redstart, lots of Redwing, Blackbirds with lesser numbers of Song Thrush and Fieldfare flying in off the North Sea in continuous flocks of varying sizes. The highlight was two Ring Ouzel which came in with one of the flocks and fed for a short time on hawthorn berries before moving on again.

We had lunch then headed back to the Crown & Anchor and lo and behold only about a dozen birders.  So we joined them and started to scan the trees in hope of movement.  That movement soon happened and the Arctic Warbler appeared and over the next twenty minutes we had some good views.

Arctic Warbler - Crown & Anchor, Kilnsea © Nick Hull

On our return to Flamborough we stopped off at Hornsea Mere and here we added a female Smew. The Mere is well known for attracting good numbers of Little Gull and we have seen big numbers here in the past but there was only three feeding up and down the Mere but none-the-less very nice to see.

Little Gull - Hornsea Mere © Nick Hull