North Wales, Anglesey & Holy Island

Hi everyone,

Jackie and I ventured off to North Wales, we had booked to stay at a Warners hotel at Bodelwyddan Castle as it was convenient to be able to visit Jackie's Aunt who lives in Llandudno and good access to a few birding sites and the coast.  I have to say the service we had and the food was excellent and the lodge we stayed in was comfortable and all one needed for a holiday I should say it is an adults only hotel.

We arrived late afternoon on the Monday so our first day for birding was Tuesday and we decided that a trip to Holy Island and South Stack would get us, with a little luck, Black Guillemot and Chough and perhaps a Rose-coloured Starling which seems to have taken up residence in a small village.

We headed off to Holyhead harbour it's a good location for Black Guillemot and other sea birds.  When we arrived we managed with a little luck to find a small parking area that overlooked the harbour and almost immediately I saw a Black Guillemot diving and feeding in the harbour.  I grabbed the camera and went to the edge of the shore in the hope it would come close enough to get a decent shot but didn't really have any luck, as you can see it is in summer plumage.

Black Guillemot - Holyhead Harbour © Nick Hull

From here it was on to South Stack our target here was to have lunch at the RSPB centre and to see Chough.  Well, the seeing of Chough went ok we saw nine flying over The Range which headed off out of sight.  The lunch didn't happen at the centre as it appears the RSPB are having it refurbished and had the builders in, we presume it will be completed for the breeding season.

Chough flying over South Stack Holy Island Wales

So we snacked and had a cuppa hoping the Chough would reappear but no such luck and the wind was increasing. Our next location was the small village of Llanfaethu as a first winter Rose-coloured Starling or as some now call them Rosy Starling had taken up residence with the local Starlings.  Instructions on the bird news said the bird could be found on the feeders in the garden behind the post box.  We parked up just a few metres down the road from the post box and walked back up the road.  We hadn't gone twenty metres and I could see the bird perched in a tree preening. It gave great close views and enable me to get some ok photographs.

Rose-coloured Starling - Llanfaethu, Anglesey Wales

It was a pretty scruffy individual and was obviously starting it's moult and it just shows if you see a pale bird in a winter flock of Starling take a closer look it's probably a Rose-coloured Starling.

On Wednesday we visited Jackie's aunt it was extremely windy day we had a drive up to the cafe on the Great Orme and saw one or two Fulmar which had returned to the cliffs to get ready for the new breeding season.  Unfortunately due to a cliff fall we couldn't travel all the way around so headed back to Jackie's aunts apartment for tea & coffee.  Whilst there I noticed a flight of Chough four birds which flew along the cliff top of the Great Orme and on around out of sight.

Thursday was going to be our last full day and we wanted to see if we could see Black Grouse so we had breakfast as early as we could and headed out to the World's End an area of grouse moor where we have been successful in the past.  We had a little difficulty finding the right area but once we had found the correct road we drove up onto the moor and slowly worked our way across the top.  Around halfway across I spotted something at the edge of the heather and juncus, stopping and getting the bins onto it, it revealed itself as a Red Grouse.

Head of the Red Grouse © Nick Hull

Over the next thirty minutes or so we had several calling and managed to locate around six individuals scattered over the moor.

Red Grouse returning out into the open © Nick Hull

Shortly after we saw a Black Grouse fly across and then land disappearing into long heather, a little  while after another flew across and kept going.  We moved down the road and I had a look over a rise and as I did Jackie saw another Black Grouse fly towards us, I was looking in the wrong direction. Jackie was shouting at me but the wind was taking her voice away, oddly I panned back to the left and caught sight of a Black Grouse just landing in the heather some 150m away Jackie's bird. I saw another distant bird but Jackie came away with the best view of us both.

Black Grouse - Archive photograph

We left happy with what we had seen and lunch at the Rhug Estate Organic Farm, Shop & Cafe which was very nice and well worth a visit if your ever passing.  After lunch we headed to Conwy RSPB reserve, here we managed to dodge the rain but not the wind but we managed to get around three of the reserves hides and saw many of the resident species, the highlight here was a pair of Goosander that flew in whilst we were there and gave us some pretty good views.

pair Goosander - Conwy RSPB © Nick Hull

The Goosander were a very nice end to our week in North Wales and it will be nice to return in the late spring to be able to catch up with some of the areas breeding species.

Norfolk neck-collared Pink-footed Goose

Those of you that follow our blog might remember I mentioned a neck collared Pink-footed Goose that we saw in Norfolk.  I contacted  Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust WWT with the details and Kane Brides replied with the following history of the bird.




As you can see it is a well travelled bird and particularly likes Norfolk to winter as do so many of this species.

Lytchett Bay Report

Hi all,

This is going to be a short blog just to make you all aware that the 2019 Lytchett Bay Report has been completed and is now on line on the Birds of Poole Harbour website survey page or you can follow this link for a PDF version.

https://www.birdsofpooleharbour.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/LB2019Rep_compressed.pdf

Wryneck © Terry Elborne

The report gives you a summary of the birds, mammals,  invertebrates and botany recorded in 2019 in the Lytchett Bay survey area.

Shaun and myself would like to thank particularly Ian Ballam for his continuous recording in the area and all those that have contributed by sending in their records and photographs either by entering them on BirdTrack, e-Bird, Twitter or directly by e-mail it all adds to our knowledge of the patch.

So a Big Thank You All

Nick, Jackie and Shaun

Highlights of Norfolk 2020

Usually over the last fifteen years or so when Jackie and I have visited North Norfolk it's been leading groups, but this last week we went alone to grab a break together and see if we could continue adding species to our year list.  So last Sunday we headed off to the Briarfields Hotel in Titchwell for a short stay. We arrived a little later than we hoped and it was raining hard so we decided to rest and start birding next morning at Sedgeford for the Alaskan/Eastern Yellow Wagtail.

So next morning straight after breakfast we headed to Shaw Farm Sedgeford though it was fine it was overcast and breezy we parked off the road and walked the lane to where other birders were looking for the bird.  After three hours of searching it became obvious that the bird had found somewhere else to spend the day.  So we decided we would try again later in the week and headed to Sculthorpe Moor to try for the Waxwing.

Arriving at Sculthorpe we were told that it was still around but was not in view but they were sure it hadn't gone far.  We went through to the rear of the centre and waited not long as it happens as it flew in and perched in an oak tree very near us and gave stunning views.

Waxwing - Sculthorpe Moor Norfolk © Nick Hull

Whilst waiting for the Waxwing to show we managed to check off a couple of Red Kite and a Sparrowhawk but oncce the Waxwing was in the bag we headed towards Wells-next-the Sea to chance our luck to see the Rough-legged Buzzard wintering in the area.

En-route to Wells we checked out North Point /Warham Fresh Marsh as it was somewhere we hadn't been to before and found it a very nice little marsh well worth knowing about.  As we turned under the old railway bridge to go into Wells we saw a couple of car parked in a gateway and the birders scoping something. So we safely parked on the verge and joined them and found they were watching our target.  Though at some distance from where we were watching from we had good scope view of a cracking looking Rough-legged Buzzard.

Rough-legged Buzzard - Wells-next-the-Sea © Nick Hull

From Wells we drove to Thornham Quay here we hoped for Twite we were told they like to sit on the old coal house on the right of the road at the quay. As we arrived we could see some small birds on the roof and I pulled up opposite and we had a look and my bins were full of Twite, I couldn't believe we were so lucky.  We didn't stay long but headed to Titchwell to see the harrier roost and hoped for a Woodcock.  As Jackie was getting tired we went to the Fen Hide where we could sit and watch and we probably didn't see as many as others did at the viewing screen but we saw 24 Marsh Harrier come into roost and 17 Little Egret, but no Woodcock none-the-less a nice end to the day.

Next morning (28th) we tried for three Tundra Bean Geese that was associating with a Pink-footed Goose flock near Holkham.  We found the Pink-feet without a problem but dipped on the Bean Geese. We did find a Pink-footed Goose with a neck collar which I've reported and now waiting for the history of the bird. 

Salthouse had changed since our last visit as there was no car park anymore.  I took a walk to see if I could find any Snow Bunting and I also checked out if there was anything out to sea.  Other than get cold and wanting to warm up I found very little, so we headed to the Norfolk Wildlife Trust centre at Cley for a lunch break.  We noticed that there was little on the reserve we hadn't seen already so we decided to wind our way back to our hotel popping into Holkham to see if the Grey Partridge were behind the parking attendance hut at the bottom of Lady Anne's Drive and sure enough they were.  We then spent about an hour checking through the wildfowl on each side of the drive, of interest was a good number of Ruff.

We decide to finish a bit earlier so Jackie could recharge before going out to dinner with friends, though we stop at the parking area that looked over Holkham/Burnham Very Marshes.  I checked out the Pink-foot flock again for the Bean Geese still no luck.  I was just about to get back into the car with Jackie when she shouted Barn Owl, I turned just in time to see it fly by to my right very close indeed.  I grabbed my camera but it was too late it had passed by and was heading away.  Anyway we watched it and waited for a while to see if it would come back and probably ten minutes past when we noticed it flying towards us along the hedgerow opposite.  I got out the car with the camera and waited then managed to shoot a few frames as it hovered and pounced into the grass not to far away.

Barn Owl near Holkham © Nick Hull

At dinner that evening news came that the Alaskan/Eastern Yellow Wagtail had been seen again so we arranged to pick our friends up and head back to Sedgeford next morning. 

So the 29th started well for us as we had Barn Owl, Buzzard, and Marsh Harriers and a single Sparrowhawk whilst having breakfast. An hour later saw us pulling up adjacent to a manure heap at Shaw Farm and almost immediately Jackie said "Oh it's there halfway up the heap" We stayed sometime watching this super looking wagtail that breeds from Siberia to Alaska I managed a few shots none are particularly good but they are good enough for a memory of a stunning rare bird.

Alaskan Yellow Wagtail - Sedgeford © Nick Hull

The rest of the day was spent at Titchwell RSPB, picking up a few trip ticks with birds such as Knot, Avocet, Grey Plover, Bar-tailed Godwits, but fairly quiet really.  We did catch up with Woodcock and had great views of Muntjac by the visitor centre, then went on to help our friends connect with Rough-legged Buzzard and Barn Owl.

Woodcock - Titchwell RSPB © Nick Hull

Muntjac Deer - Titchwell RSPB © Nick Hull

On the 30th again our day started well at breakfast with two Red Kite, Kestrel and three Marsh Harrier after which we headed out to Holkham parking in Lady Anne's Driver and walking out to the beach.  I was a little concerned how Jackie would cope with walking as far and on sand but it's amazing what the promise of seeing Shore Lark, Snow Buntings, Velvet Scoter and Long-tailed Duck can do to a persons determination.  Anyway we took our time and almost as we reach some other birders watching them we saw 40-50 Snow Bunting take off and land out on the dunes so when we reached the other birders we expected that the Shore Lark had gone as well. We needn't worried as the Shore Lark were still there and after a few minutes to get on to them you could see the occasional head popping up and down as they moved through the undergrowth of the salt marsh.

one of five Shore Lark - Holkham Mills © Nick Hull 

One down, so we moved out to the dunes to find the sea duck.  We joined a few other birders and found there was a large number of Common Scoter off shore in more or less three large rafts.  I thought it's going to take a while to search through this lot for a handful of Velvets.  We had been sorting through one of the rafts when the flock of Snow Buntings flew past in front of us and landed to our left searched and fed for a while before moving on up the beach.  I eventually found a male Long-tailed Duck and a couple of Red-breasted Mergansers and a while later I picked out the white in the wing of a Velvet Scoter what was really amazing was I managed to get Jackie on them all without too much trouble.  A clean sweep, so it was back to the new lookout cafe for a celebration coffee and piece of very nice flapjack where I added a Peregrine to our list sat out in the marsh.

Snow Bunting - Holkham Dunes © Nick Hull

Before leaving we checked out the wildfowl each side of the drive and we managed to find the Black Brant or Brants lots of controversy about one of them being a hybrid or as some have claimed Grey-bellied Brant.  Well to me there was little difference in the two individuals though one did appear darker than the other and with slightly whiter flanks.  But saying this both birds stood out to be different from the associating Dark-bellied Brent.

Black Brant (Back) & Brant x Dark-bellied Brent?middle - Lady Anne's Drive © Nick Hull

Looking at photographs on the web taken in North America both seem to fit within the colour range of Black Brant, what I cannot find written is if the colour differences it to do the sex or age of the individuals but it's certainly interesting birds to see.

On the 31st we started our journey home but stopped off at Welney WWT to add Whooper Swan and Tree Sparrow to our list.  We saw a family party of Whooper Swan on our approach to the WWT Centre and had lots of Reed Bunting and several Tree Sparrows on the centres feeders.  The overriding experience was to see what was possible 2000+ Golden Plover all in the air just dotting the sky and wanting to land but wouldn't, they were very nervous and we eventually found out why there was a Peregrine sat out on the fen.

Whooper Swan family - Welney WWT © Nick Hull

Birding in 2020

Hope you all had a good Christmas and we wish you all a Happy New Year with plenty of  great birding and wildlife experiences.

I hadn't realised we had gone so long without updating the blog, though I have to say the end of 2019 didn't give us very much in the way of new species. Also with Jackie being somewhat hampered with her mobility our year list was a little less than it has been for years.  So it's not surprising that Jackie decided this year we would make more of an effort to see a larger number of birds.  

As usual, like many birders, the 1st of January is the start date and it's a full on birding day.  Though this year the weather started fine and deteriorated in the afternoon but by that time we had headed towards home, we had a list of 70 species so not a bad start to the years birding.  

Unlike the winning bird race team which put in some real effort and saw 129 species a few days later we do take things a little more sedately.  We usually challenge ourselves to try and see 100 species in the first week of the new year but this year we ended the week needing five species but managed the 102 by the end of the eighth day so not too bad.  Now thinking about things we didn't visit that many locations so if the weather had been better on the 1st we would have finished with a better total.  The location we visited were Maiden Castle, Camp Road Wyke Regis, Osprey Quay, Chesil Cove, Portland Bill, Radipole, Lodmoor and Waddock Cross cressbeds then back to Norden when the rain came in, so it was a quick pop to Arne for coffee and to checkout the feeders.  Our highlights of the day were Great Northern Diver in Portland Hbr, 4 Red-throated Diver flying past Portland Bill and a pair of Black Redstart at Chesil Cove.

Awful crpped flyby shot four Red-throated Diver pas Portland Bill

On the 5th we decided to return to the Weymouth area but due to a traffic took a back route via Tincleton which turned out beneficial as we found a Cattle Egret amongst twelve Little Egrets in a cattle field at Bockhampton.  This kind of started our day as it turned into a heron species day as from Tincleton we headed down to Abbotsbury Swannery, then along Barn Road to Langton Herring and checked off two Great White Egret feeding in a grass field. Then on to Ferrybridge and yet again once we arrived at Lodmoor the weather closed in so we ended our day early yet again.

Imm. Cattle Egret Bockhampton © Nick Hull

The next outing was leading a group at Studland on the 7th starting at South Haven and Shell Bay then looking into the harbour before heading up to the Brand's Bay Hide.  The day left us four species short of our hundred challenge highlights were Slavonian Grebe, Black-necked Grebe and Firecrest. 

Next day (8th) we had another group this time at Blashford Lakes by the end of the morning we hit 102 species. Adding Greylag Goose, Long-tailed Duck,  Goldeneye, Nuthatch, Treecreeper and  Siskin.

Though there is at least another 30 species out there to get. In the evening we joined the Birds of Poole Harbour event and added Jack Snipe and Woodcock, two very nice birds to add to our year list.

Terry Elborn (SRG) Paul Morton (BoPH) plus Common & Jack Snipe © Nick Hull

Aging of Woodcock being carried out and explained © Nick Hull

Normandie Visual Migration - 'VisMig'

After our visit to the East Riding of Yorkshire Jackie and I had some business across the channel and planned a couple of days birding.  So we had a day at home before jumping on the ferry at Poole  to Cherbourg. An hour and a half later we arrived at our B&B chosen as it was just 25 minutes from the coast and from one of Normandie's best vismig watch points, though you will not see this advertised anywhere.  We found out by accident on visiting the little nature reserve some years ago and was told by a local that the two kilometre's of coastline was a good place to see many birds from l'Angleterre passing over.  It took us a few visits before we hit a good passage and boy was it good, so we have visited on and off since.  As the autumn migration had started in the Yorkshire with the thrush movements a week before we thought it was a good time to visit the site again.

Day 1

We breakfasted early enough we thought to get to our watch point in time for dawn but we arrived a little late.  As we were just getting our gear together in the car park I noticed a scattered flock of birds flying towards us, bins up and I could see and hear they were Chaffinch. So we hurried to get to our preposed watchpoint and started counting.  There was a light mist and the birds would come into view about 500m away as they moved towards us.  Chaffinch were the main migrant and they were passing on a narrow front and as the mist started to clear the front broadened and the birds came past higher up.

Chaffinch passing landward 

Chaffinch moving over the sea

To start with the chaffinch were streaming through then as time moved on they came in waves, but when you are in the position with this many birds of one species moving the main thing to do is look and listen for different sounds and block out the Chaffinch.  It didn't take us long before we heard our first Brambling, Greenfinch, the odd Redwing and Song Thrush, Mistle Thrush and 'Alba' Wagtail.  Small flocks of Starling also Woodpigeon the latter was something new for us this side of the channel. Then Skylark started to move through mainly in one's and two's but a few small groups were seen later. It was not long after we recorded our first Wood Lark one at a time, we would hear them call and then we would look for them and most were following the line of the cliff south towards Brittany.

Woodlark disappearing towards Brittany

Small flocks of Starling were also moving, also Jackdaw, lesser numbers of Goldfinch, Stock Dove, Blackbird, Linnet were recorded. Two species I never quite get used to seeing is Great and Blue Tit but we had several little groups some passing by others dropping like stones out of the sky and pitching in to the cliff top bushes before moving on again a while later.

Blue Tit passing by our watch point

It always nice when you are vismiging and you here 'tzick' of Hawfinch and we recorded them on seven occasion during the morning the largest group was ten birds but I'm sure we missed seeing some.

Hawfinch migrating

We did have a few raptors, not all migrants, with a pair of Peregrine, two Kestrels and singles of Merlin and Sparrowhawk.  Our watch lasted till 12:30hrs three hours, this was when everything slowed and came to a more or less a stop and all the bushes and trees in the woodland suddenly went quiet.

We went for lunch then sat on a bench on a nearby beach and had a total count of the mornings birds we recorded 3,828 birds of 29 species we considered migrants, plus a few local species such as Cirl Bunting, Peregrine, and Black Woodpecker the latter gave us a nice call and fly around the tree tops before ducking into the trees again which brought the total number of species to 41 for the morning.  

It was whilst doing our count up that Jackie and I became aware of a background sound, in fact I remembered hearing it all morning and we realised it was coming from out to sea.  Then it fell into place it was an enormous number of Common Scoter, we estimated somewhere between 2000+ birds.  They were around a half a mile out and scattered all across the bay. It appeared they were mostly black drakes but I did find a number of females immature types. I took a little recording on my iphone but it was to faint to reproduce here, so I've taken the recording and mixed it with other recordings to produce a sound similar to what we were hearing.  Apologies to the purists amongst you but I wanted to give you a real feel of the sound we were hearing and you could hear it from anywhere along the coastal path for around around 4km at least.

Day 2
After the previous mornings experience we decided to do it all over again, but it was wet and overcast when we left our B&B.  As we drew nearer to the coast it brightened up a tad and we became more hopeful.  This morning we were at least a half hour earlier and the wood and bushes only had the few resident birds present.  We had a short conversation with a local birder who gave us a little heads up of where to stand to vismig that morning with the overnight change in wind direction .  So taking his advice we started out in the field north of the car park.  As we were walking to our proposed spot a couple of Swallow flew over to get us started and then as with our first day the Chaffinch started streaming through and then Starlings started in small flocks then came several large flocks one after the other, higher than the Chaffinch.

Starling migrating

As the morning progressed we realised like the previous day as it became brighter and the birds could then see the Brittany coast the birds started to move direction more over the sea.  So Jackie and I returned to the previous watch point on the coastal path but not before we had added Grey Heron, Great White Egret, Serin, Ring Ouzel, Siskin and Redpoll to the morning list.

After our move It was then we found we had been missing a few species which we had recorded the day before, Blue and Great Tit and Goldcrests also Alba Wagtail, as they were moving along the clifftop out of sight of us on the field by the car park. By lunch time we had doubled our previous days count and recorded 8065 birds of 35 migrant species six more than the previous day and two extra species considered local Buzzard and Cetti's Warbler.

Those species considered to be migrants over both days:-

Species highlighted were seen on second day not on day one.

Dark-bellied Brent Goose (39 - 18) flying past out to sea.
Common Scoter (2000+ - 3000+) not in counted in final numbers as not migrating through.
Grey Heron (0 - 2)
Great White Egret (0 - 2)
Sparrowhawk (3)
Lapwing (3 - 5)
Stock Dove (6 - 5)
Woodpigeon (327 - 262)
Merlin (1 - 0)
Jackdaw (96 - 45)
Goldcrest (4+ - 5+)
Blue Tit (34 - 7+)
Great Tit (82 - 10+)
Woodlark (11 - 5+)
Skylark (42 - 132)
Swallow (0 - 2)
Chiffchaff (2 - 3)
Starling (1159 - 3187)
Ring Ouzel (0 - 2)
Blackbird (7 - 9)
Song Thrush (9 - 19)
Redwing (31 - 127)
Mistle Thrush (6 - 16)
Pied/White (alba Wagtail) (21 - 1+)
Meadow Pipit (3 - 6)
Brambling (10 - 62)
Chaffinch (1440 - 3935)
Hawfinch (23 - 4)
Bullfinch (5 - 21)
Greenfinch (49 - 4)
Linnet (30 - 0)
Lesser/Common Redpoll (0 - 6)
Goldfinch (5 - 4+)
Serin (0 - 1)
Siskin (38 - 137+)

Species Considered most likely local residents:-

Cormorant (1 - 3)
Little Egret (1 - 1)
Great Crested Grebe (1 - 2) on sea
Sparrowhawk (2 - 2)
Buzzard (0 - 1)
Black-headed Gull present
Common Gull present
Herring Gull present
Great Black-backed Gull present
Woodpigeon present
Black Woodpecker (1 - 0)*
Green Woodpecker (1+ - 0)
Great Spotted Woodpecker (2)
Kestrel (2+)
Peregrine (2 - 0)
Jay (2 - 2)
Jackdaw present
Cetti's Warbler (0 - 2)
Wren present
Blackbird present
Song Thrush present
Robin present
Stonechat (2 - 0)
Dunnock present
Chaffinch present
Cirl Bunting (2 - 3 heard singing)

East Riding of Yorkshire Part 2

We started both days at Flamborough's South Landing watching the ringing event and then moved on to Bempton Cliff RSPB reserve where we saw a number of birds species in the hand that you don't often get so close views of normally. 

This was part of the Filey & Flamborough Ringing & Migration Week (aka Migweek). To read more about the birding week and highlights of Migweek go to Mark James Pearson's Blog.

While I remember, Jackie and I would like to thank Mark and his team and all involved with the event for making us so welcome and organising a brilliant event, 'We'll be back'. 

Now back to the birds, both mornings were not in best weather conditions but none-the-less a trickle of birds were brought in from the nets and we had informitive descriptions of the age of the individual bird and sexing if it was possible to do so etc, from the ringers who were representing the BTO.

Day 3 Started at the Flamborough Observatory at South Landing where we saw a few birds in the hand before the rain stopped play .  At which point Jackie and I headed to the Fog Station as there had been a Short-eared Owl reported there. We pulled up in the car park with the rain lashing down. Jackie found the owl hunkered down under a large tussock of grass out to our right. From here we headed to Bempton as we were to meet Derek and Kay for lunch.  By the time we arrived the rain had more or less passed, but was soon to start again. Derek and Kay arrived and we headed off to Bridlington for lunch at Rag's restaurant at the old harbour masters building and a very nice lunch it was to.

After lunch the rain eased and the sun came out more or less as we exited the restaurant and Derek said "often there is Purple Sandpipers on the rocks just over the sea wall", so we took a look and there they were along with a few Turnstone and Oystercatcher plus a single Knot.

As we arriving back at Bempton to pick up our car the info services pinged out that the Red-flanked Bluetail that had been caught in the nets at Filey the day before had been found in the Arndale.  Well we couldn't refuse the chance so off we went, we purchased a 2 hour parking ticket and headed down into the Arndale, a tree lined path leading down to the sea.  We met with four local birders and they kindly pointed the bird out high in the canopy. See Marks Blog for photo of the bird.  making a successful end to the day. 

Day 4 Was a successful morning though slow to start we had several birds brought in to the ringing station. 

Feisty Blue Tit - Flamborough Obs © Jackie Hull

As you can see Blue Tit can be pretty feisty compared to one of the other residents the Tree Sparrow which was caught a little later whose threat display constituted just raising it's wings. 

Local Tree Sparrow giving its best threat display © Nick Hull

Our first migrant was this Redwing which had probably came across the North Sea that morning and came down to have a feed on the Hawthorn berries when it went into the nets.

Redwing - Flamborough © Nick Hull

It was particularly nice to see a female Bullfinch in the hand. We were shown a detail on one of the feathers which I have to admit not having seen before in the field.  The strange thing is no one has figured out what it's there for.  Its a small triangular rufous feather at the inner edge of the greater coverts.

Female - Bullfinch © Nick Hull

Below is the small rufous feather being pointed out, it may maybe that it gives the impression of a face from the rear to help fool predators, but who knows?

The rufous triangular feather being pointed out © Nick Hull

This juvenile Lesser Redpoll was a delight to see up close and without its red poll which hadn't developed yet.

Lesser Redpoll - Flamborough Obs © Nick Hull

This male Blackcap was suspected as being a migrant as many of this species will come to Britain to winter from central Europe.

male Blackcap - Flamborough Obs - © Jackie Hull

This Goldcrest was certainly the smallest and lightest of the species caught at around 6 grams means they are around the weight of a 10 pence coin which is 6.5g which is amazing when you think they migrate over the North Sea.

Male Goldcrest - Flamborough Obs, © Jackie Hull

Once the the ringing slowed and more people were arriving Jackie and I decided to move to Bempton RSPB to see if they were catching any different species there. We jammed in on the catching of a juvenile female Stonechat which we watched being trapped in a spring net which sits on the top of a post and when the bird lands on the post the net springs around it.  Apparently this method is extremely successful for catching Stonechat, Whinchat and Wheatear and other species which like perching on posts I suppose.

Juvenile female - Stonechat © Nick Hull

The cliffs at Bempton still had a few late breeding birds with juvenile Gannet on the nest which hadn't fledged.  Though most of the young birds had gone though there were many adults and a handful of intermediate aged bird cruising along the cliffs and out to sea.

Adults and Juvenile Gannet - Bempton Cliffs RSPB © Nick Hull

Back at the 'Dale' we had a few Brambling and we watched to see a Ring Ouzel which had disappeared into an elder bush.  Whilst we waited for it to show we had a skein of forty Pink-footed Geese heading over south.

Skein of Pink-footed Geese - over Bempton Cliffs RSPB Reserve © Nick Hull

We also had several flocks of Redwing flighting in for a quick top-up on berries then heading off again south.

Flight of migrant Redwing (Vis Mig) © Nick Hull

Then all of a sudden Jackie calls Ring Ouzel, well it came towards us then flew around in a large loop and landed in the scrubby field behind the Dale out of sight again. I took a shot of it as it was was in its turn but it was so far away you can only just see it's a thrush let alone a Ring Ouzel. Looking closely you can just make out the pale neck collar on this very cropped shot.

Memory shot of a Ring Ouzel - Bempton © Nick Hull

The next day we travelled home only for a day, before heading to Normandy for a few more days of vismiging. Which is coming next.