I had been watching the recent weather intently. As a birder you're always interested in the weather and it had looked good the last few days with a high pressure over Scandinavia producing great migration conditions, and a few rarities around the country showed that birds were moving. I was partly watching the forecast in dread too; I'm off to Spurn next week and I'm praying that if the high pressure stays it doesn't all 'happen' before I get there, and if it moves off I don't want to be there in a westerly or north westerly. Anyway, the rarities kept cropping up along the east coast and I've been sat watching jealously, so when a colleague at work said he was off to the east coast on Thursday (yesterday) and asked if I fancied it I nearly bit his hand off. I just had to make a few calls to get meetings re-organised and I was sorted. I was in work on Wednesday and news started trickling through of even more good birds - Eastern Crowned Warbler, Greenish Warbler and the Black-Browed Albatross at Bempton RSPB, Whites Thrush on Holy Island, Red-flanked Bluetail and Little Bunting at Spurn, plus Yellow-browed Warblers pretty much everywhere. I was like a kid at Christmas and couldn't wait, as several of my work colleagues pointed out.
05:30 on Thursday and I was on my way, and being chauffeured by Dermot. The first time in years I haven't had to drive over to that side of the country so that was an added bonus. As we crossed the Pennines I was keeping an eye on the news so we could finalise our day. We were definitely going for the Eastern Crowned Warbler (ECW) and were considering going for the White's Thrush on Holy Island too, but were trying to remain flexible. At about 08:20 we turned into the car park at Bempton. There were already plenty of cars around and a few birders walking towards the scrubby area at the side of the new Seabird Centre. We quickly joined them and learned that the bird had been showing quite well already, so took up position just outside the canopy. Sure enough after about 10 minutes the bird appeared and what a cracker. I can understand how, with only brief views, someone could mistake this for an Arctic Warbler, but with a good view this bird is so distinctive. In some lights the head was almost black and the faint greyish crown stripe was easily picked out. The bird was very active and moved around constantly and my attempts to photograph it failed miserably. I did however manage a nice shot of a Tree Sparrow!! There was also a huge number of Chiffchaffs in the bushes with a nice array of plumages on display, from buff to green, small medium and large superciliums, they were all on display. A nice Brambling that had obviously just arrived was also a nice addition to the list.
Tree Sparrow
After watching the ECW for a while we mooched around the reserve, a quick look on the sea proved fruitless, mainly because it was so breezy I couldn't keep the scope still, but there were still plenty Gannets and Fulmars close in to provide a bit of entertainment. We were heading back to the car when reports came through of a Bluethroat on the coastal path so we headed back to see if we could see it. It was eventually pinned down between two crowds and I managed reasonable views of a first winter/juvenile type bird. I was amazed so many people had rushed to see it, probably just due to the number of people on site for the ECW, anyway, it was enough to encourage us to leave. The White's Thrush had done a disappearing act, so it was off to Flamborough for the Taiga Bean Goose. A quick word about Bempton Cliffs RSPB. There has been a tremendous amount of work done since I was last here in 2014. The new seabird centre is a huge improvement on what was there before, the paths around the reserve have been massively improved too as has the car park. Go check it out.
We picked up the Taiga Bean Goose quite quickly, and even though it was distant we got good views of the distinguishing features. We then had a quick debate about what to do next. Nothing new had come up on twitter so we decided that Spurn had to be a good option and set off. We'd just called for fuel in Hornsea when I had a twitter alert that an Arctic Warbler had turned up back at Bempton. A quick debate and we were heading back to Bempton. Once again we skidded into the car park, except this time we were in the overspill there were so many birders on site. We grabbed our gear and headed off in the opposite direction to the crowd still looking at the ECW. We had only just got our scopes set up when someone called a Warbler in the hedgerow. Thankfully I managed to get on it quite quickly and had an eyepiece full of what to me was clearly an Arctic Warbler. The bird flitted around in a couple of Willows then disappeared. About five minutes later a.n.other warbler appeared on top of a small Hawthorn, closer than where the first warbler had been but in the same area. I didn't get on this one, but some people said this wasn't an Arctic Warbler, more likely a Greenish. Several birders then had a lengthy debate about what had actually been seen. Both Dermot and myself were sure we had seen Arctic Warbler, as was another friend who we met on site, who also happens to be an excellent birder. After some debate the two bird theory seemed to explain it and seeing as neither bird was showing we moved back to the ECW where it was showing ridiculously well and I managed some great (for me) photos of it, along with a couple of other birds.
Eastern Crowned Warbler
Eastern Crowned Warbler
Eastern Crowned Warbler
Eastern Crowned Warbler
Chiffchaff
Redwing
Tree Sparrow
We decided to have one last look over the sea before leaving. It was still breezy, and still almost impossible to hold the scope steady. Instead I watched the Gannets which just seemed to be enjoying flying in the stiff breeze. At one point just about every Gannet on the cliffs headed out to sea in one movement. It was quite breath-taking. The photo below doesn't do it justice as it was a quick snap on my mobile but it was a great way to end the day.
No comments:
Post a Comment