Yorkshire Mega's Bonanza October Part 1

On the 8th October Jackie and I headed off to East Yorkshire for a birding break to take in the Flamborough MigWeek21 with talks, bird ringing and walks all aimed at seeing migrants fresh in from Northern Europe or further afield. We have taken part in this event previously and had some very good birds such as Red-flanked Bluetail, Yellow-browed Warbler just to mention a couple. We also have had large thrush, finch and goose movements which can be quite spectacular.

We left Dorset early in the morning and as we couldn't book in to our cottage at Buckton until after 17:00hrs we figured that we would have time to fit in a visit to Blacktoft Sand RSPB reserve near Goole.  As there was a White-tailed Lapwing a very sought after bird species in Britain as there has only been ten UK records the last was in July 2010.  It's a species that is also on the Dorset list from Abbotsbury in July 1979, which is another story.

So around five and a half hours later we were pulling in to Blacktoft and the first person we saw was fellow Lytchett patch birder Shaun Robson who had called in to see the lapwing on his way to Newcastle and he told us just where to see the bird.  When we arrived at the hide only six people were there so we took a vacant seat and scanned the pools out front and quickly picked up what turned out to be our first mega of the trip, over the next thirty minutes is performed well and gave unbelievable views.  So we went off and had our lunch then visiting the other hides before leaving to get to our cottage.  Adding Curlew Sandpiper and Ruff, Marsh Harrier plus the more common species to get our Yorkshire list up and running.

White-tailed Lapwing - Blacktoft RSPB © Nick Hull

9th October - Our first morning we spent at Bempton RSPB as they had a ringing demonstration that morning and we had arranged to meet friends later.  We were greeted by the sound of chirping Tree Sparrow always a joy to see and we made our way to where the ringing was to take place.  The first few net rounds produced several of the common species Robin, Dunnock, Blue Tit etc.  Then the first of the autumn for us a Yellow-browed Warbler popped into the net and we had close up views of this stunning eastern gem.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Bempton RSPB © Nick Hull

When the ringing slowed and our friends arrived we headed off down to the breeding cliffs to checkout the Gannets colony as many still hang around for sometime after the breeding season is over and we had some great views of bird plunging in the sea for fish and gliding effortlessly by the uplift of the wind along the cliff edge.  There wasn't much migration going on, though we did have a few Chaffinch and Skylark coming in and moving over also a Mistle Thrush which isn't common here.

Gannet - Bempton Cliffs RSPB © Nick Hull

10th October - Out again early this time to Flamborough South Landing and Observatory.  The mornings ringing brought in very little in fact much the same as the previous day with the highlight being another Yellow-browed Warbler and a nice male Bullfinch.  We headed back to the cottage and Jackie went for a rest and I headed off up the lane/footpath to see what was around locally.  In fact there was very little as the area is quite intensively farmed but after about a mile I met RSPB's Mark Thomas a local birder.  He was investigating a sighting of a Yellow-browed Warbler in a small copse and invited me to join him which I duly did.  We had hardly arrived when we both heard the 'shweee' call of a Yellow-browed and in due course had good views as it moved around in some elder and thorn before heading back into the sycamore where we first heard it.  It was then that I realised the time and had to head back to the cottage for lunch.

Yellow-browed Warbler - Buckton © Mark Thomas

In the afternoon we headed to Hornsea Mere usually a good place to catch up with Little Gull and it didn't disappoint but we only had a single well marked 1st/winter bird, we added a flock of Barnacle Geese that flew in and a number of common waterfowl species but the Slavonian Grebe couldn't be found.

1st/winter Little Gull_Hornsea Mere © Nick Hull

11th October - On the Friday we arrived a real mega wader was identified a Long-toed Stint at St. Aidan's RSPB.  Jackie and I decided we would risk not going straight away, to avoid the crowds of weekend twitchers by going on a week day and Monday suited us best. So an early start and after an hour and fifty minutes we were pulling up in the reserve car park and getting directions to where the bird could be seen.  It was a pretty long walk possibly three quarters of a mile.  We arrived to find around a dozen birders present and they made room for us at one end and directed us to where the bird could be seen.  We had to wait for it to walk around from the back of a small island to come into sight but it appeared next to a Lapwing and looked really dinky in comparison.  Long-toed Stint is an Siberian breeding species that winters in Thailand through Malaysia to Australia and has only been recorded in Britain and Ireland on three previous occasions Marazion, Cornwall in 1970, Saltholme RSPB, Cleveland 1982 and Ballycotton, Cork in 1996.  Due to the distance we were from the bird I only managed a few memory type shots but it was a fantastic bird to catchup with.  We also saw Bittern and I had two Red Kite while Jackie had gone to get sandwich's for lunch.

This is the small island the stint frequented and the boxed area is expanded below

Long-toed Stint_St. Aidan's RSPB © Nick Hull

The dark rufous crown and prominent supercilium, long tertials with no primary projection and pale yellowish legs were very noticeable. When viewing through the telescope at high magnification the legs also seemed long for a bird of its size and seemed very flexed almost like a Jack Snipe much different than with Little and Temmick's Stint. In fact It reminded me more of a Least Sandpiper.

We lunched at St Aidan's before moving on to tick off another RSPB reserve at Fairburn Ings, our purpose here was to see if we could find Willow Tit.  We needn't of worried we checked in at the centre and were told to try the hides where there were feeders as they had been getting regular visits from Willow Tit in the morning. So we headed out and only went as far as the centres feeding station and lo and behold there on the fat balls was a Willow Tit.  None-the-less we did a circuit of the reserve and glad we did as we added two possibly four Great White Egret, two Cattle Egret, Grey Heron and Little Egret to our Yorkshire list.  Jackie also caught up with a Red Kite that circled right over us on the return path to the centre.  

Red Kite over Fairburn Ings RSPB © Nick Hull

At this point I'd just like to thank Alan Davis of 'The Biggest Twitch: Around the World in 4000 birds fame'. (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Biggest-Twitch-Around-World-birds/dp/1472918606). As we approached the centre, via a boardwalk, the corner to turn to get off and return onto the path was too sharp for Jackie's scooter to  drive around.  Instead of Jackie having to reverse all the way back Alan, who happened to be behind us, suggested to help me lift Jackie's scooter and spin it around the corner, which  between us we managed to do. 

 

Marsh Tit - Fairburn Ings © Nick Hull

We ended our day here as we started with Willow Tit at the centres feeders.

Willow Tit Fairburn Ings © Nick Hull

12th October - It was back to Flamborough for the early morning ringing session and it turned out to be pretty good with some thrush and finch migration.  With Redwing predominating a handful of Song Thrush and Blackbird the first Fieldfare and Brambling moving in off the North Sea all of which were seen in the hand except for the Fieldfare.  

A few of the birds we saw close up at the ringing demonstration

It was interesting to see the Blackbirds which they identified as most likely to be Scandinavian birds as they had longer wings and were slightly heavier birds also the plumage appears slightly sooty black compared to local birds.  The Song Thrush and Redwing were also Scandinavian birds, and Jackie was allowed to release one of the Redwing which was placed on her open hand on it's back where it stayed momentarily before righting itself and flying off.  

To be continued in Part 2