Early October Yorkshire Birding

Any birder with their finger anywhere near the pulse of the national bird scene will be aware that there have been some good birds in Yorkshire recently. The star was of course the first UK twitchable Pale-legged Leaf Warbler at Bempton but there has been a pretty impressive supporting cast as well. Naturally my interest was piqued though, when the PLLW was first found, a combination of illness and work meant that I wasn't free to have a try for it. Judging by the photos of the scrum on the first day, this was no bad thing but I decided to clear my schedule for Friday and make a sortie up to the Yorkshire coast, hoping that at least some of the assembled goodies there would remain. Sadly the Leaf Warbler departed but there were still some good birds to be had. And so it was that on Thursday late afternoon I sallied forth in the Gnome-mobile on the long slog up north. My plan for the trip was first to visit Spurn before relocating to Flamborough, hoping to connect with some good birdage in both locations. The journey was difficult with various stoppages and traffic jams combining to add an extra half an hour to the predicted journey time. So it wasn't until sometime after 8 pm that I arrived at my AirBnB in Patringham, which was less than 20 minutes from the birding Mecca that is Spurn. The BnB was very comfortable and situated in a very quiet location and I spent some time chatting with my genial host before turning in for the evening.

The next morning I was up at 6 a.m. and after showering and breakfast I was out the door as the sun was rising at around 7 a.m. The forecast was for a lovely sunny day with little wind and there was some mist along the road towards Spurn. I arrived at the gate near the Warren with just half a dozen other cars there and parked up. My main initial target was an Arctic Warbler which was located "at the Narrows". This was a bit of a bogey bird for me and was the last of the fairly regular phylloscs that I still needed. As I was setting off I met a local coming the other way so I asked him where on the Narrows it was. He said that he thought it was near the high tide shelter and that he was going to take a look later on himself as he'd not yet seen it. So off I yomped on the 20 minute walk along the narrow strip of land south of the Warren towards the high tide shelter. There was no one else in sight on this beautiful morning and I was feeling optimistic as I covered the ground. This feeling was further bolstered by a tweet from the Spurn Bird Obs account saying that the Arctic Warbler was still present "at the Narrows" - most encouraging! 

I finally arrived at the shelter and took stock of the situation. Hmmm, this might be tricker than I anticipated. There was a clump of Sea Buckthorn right by the shelter. However, there were lots of clumps all spread out along either side of the path as well as plenty of cover towards the sea on the east side and the estuary on the west side. What's more I was the only person there - this could be difficult. I fired off a tweet back to Spurn asking for a more detailed location but there was no reply. So I wandered about, hoping to connect somehow though I was now starting to feel less optimistic.

Looking towards Spurn Point from near the collapsed road

Eventually a couple of locals turned up on their e-bikes. These e-bikes turned out to be a "thing" at Spurn with lots of the locals using them to cover the long distance across the Narrows in a hurry so as not to miss anything good should it come up on the short-wave radio that they all use. At last, re-inforcements! What's more they seemed keen to see the Arctic Warbler themselves so we joined forces. I asked if they knew who'd seen it that morning and they radio'd the person in question to ask him. The answer came back that it had been seen briefly as it flitted off the ridge down one side that morning somewhere between the shelter and the collapsed road. That at least narrowed it down and we began systematically to search. A flock of four Whooper Swans flew over - a nice year tick for me. On the estuary were Brent Geese, Shelduck, Redshank and Oystercatchers. Had I not been stressing over trying to find my target bird I would have been revelling in the beautiful surroundings.

Some of the Brent Geese on the estuary

After about half an hour with no luck, my two companions decided to give up and head further south towards the Point. This left me back on my own again and by now starting to feel despondent. Fortunately new reinforcements arrived in the form of SB and a companion, both from Oxfordshire. This proved to be the first in a long line of Oxon meet-ups that I was to have over the course of my trip. I filled them in on the target area and we all started searching again. While we were looking a Lapland Bunting flew over calling. This tallied with the report of that species flying over the Warren a little while earlier. Another birder joined us so that there were now four of us. During one pass along the ridge the last newcomber and myself spotted a small bird flitting out of the bushes and down the slope on the estuary side. We hurried over to peer down into the deep shade of the cliff. It was still there at the bottom though partially hidden. We scrutinised it closely - it looked promising: a small dark phyllosc with a super that stopped before the forehead. And yes, there was the wing bar, it was our bird! Excitedly, we called the other two over and tried to track it as it rapidly worked its way along the bottom of the cliff. In the end I decided that it would be easier viewing from the shoreline and scrambled down the steep slope. My companions were somewhat more circumspect about getting down but eventually found their way down too. The bird was working its way rapidly along the scrub in the side and base of the cliff. It was easy to follow but always moving rapidly. I tried to take some superzoom photos though it was moving too quickly so in the end I tried to video it instead. None of it came out though there were a few frames of video from which I could salvage some record shot grabs. This would prove to be another theme of the trip - all my photos ended up being remarkably crap! Not that I cared - at last I'd seen an Arctic Warbler! We followed in for a while until it nipped off somewhere.

Above and below, some blurry video grab record shots of the Arctic Warbler

The Arctic warbler (Phylloscopus borealis) normally inhabits either pure or mixed Birch forest, usually near water and breeds in Fennoscandia and the northern Palearctic. It is strongly migratory and winters in south east Asia. Apparently it also breeds in Alaska in North America. It is pretty much annual to the UK though is classed as a Rare, rather than merely a Scarce on RBA.

With my birding plans already somewhat thrown out by the length of time it had taken to convert the first target I decided not to linger but instead made my way back north towards the Warren. I'd been following the bird news that morning: a Dusky Warbler at the Warren (which would probably take too long to connect with given how skulky they are), a Little Bunting near the Canal (ditto) and a Barred Warbler at Easington (maybe worth going for). Hmmm, maybe it was time to head straight for Flamborough. I pondered this as I walked back along the beach. Near the Warren there was a huddle of birders and it turned out that a locustella had been seen in the scrub. So a net had been set up into which and they were trying to flush it. We all watched with excitment as the ringers worked their way through the scrub. Sadly they got to the end with no sign of a bird at all so they had to give up. Oh well, that could have been a wonderful bonus bird but it was not to be. So I headed on to the car, had a celebratory cup of tea and a snack and then fired up the Gnome-mobile and headed off towards Flamborough.

The failed locustella flush

After a tortuous 1.5 hours along endless back roads I finally arrived at my next location of Holmes Gut. Here another bogey bird of mine, an Icterine Warbler, had been lurking for a few days now. Could I finally connect with a second bogey bird in one day? I headed off to find a bunch of people staring at a Hawthorn tree intently - this looked promising. There I met two more Oxon birders: CM and CO. It turned out that CM had last seen the bird just 5 minutes ago as it dropped into the aforementioend Hawthorn. Could it be this easy? I watched and waited intently. However, as the minutes dragged by it started to looked like the bird had ducked down the other side. In any event the light was terrible: we were looking straight into it up a slight slope so it was very hard to make anything out that was hidden in the depths of the trees. Gradually the crowds drifted away and my two county companions also left. I decided to give it a while long and started to bird the 150 yard length of the narrow valley. 

There was a small sewage treament bunker at one end surrounded by Sycamores and some Sallows. At the other end was a little wooden footbridge and lots of deep cover. In previous days the bird had been reported anywhere between these two landmarks. By way of compensation there were a couple of Red-breasted Flycatchers near the sewage works and, although furtive, they eventually offered some great views - actually the best I've ever had of this species. I even managed yet another blurry record shot.

Not a "classic" photo by any means of a Red-breasted Flycatcher

 

Apart from that there was an interesting Acro warbler that was never seen well enough to get any detail on. There was also no sign of my Icky at all. After a couple of hours (usually my tolerance limit for these things) I decided to go and try to see some of the other stuff that was nearby and to come back later on to give it another try. First stop was a drive of a couple of minutes towards the caravan site where an Olive-backed Pipit was lurking. A walk of a few minutes took me to a small group peering into the dark underbelly of a small copse of trees intently, looking for this skulking ground-feeding pipit. There I met NT and his wife (yet another Oxon connection). He told me that it had been showing well that morning but was now skulking right at the back and hadn't been seen for half an hour at least. So I gave it about three quarters of an hour or so but without it being seen at all. In the end I got bored (I've seen several already) and decided to nip over the Bempton to try to tick the 1w (presumed) Daurian Shrike that was there. 

So it was back in the car and then a 10 minute hop to the car park of Bempton. I tooled up and asked for directions from a member of staff, to be told it was half way along the Nature Trail just a few minutes walk away. I could see the crowd of birders by the hedge and hurried to join them. There I was told that it had last been seen about 10 minutes ago so I settled down to wait. At that moment an RSPB staff member turned up and asked us to move back onto the path. The twitch group had been standing on part of the meadow area of long grass in order to give the bird enough space. We grudgingly complied though this now meant that we were really too close and it was hard to see the bird on its usual perch at the back of the hedge. We all waited and waited but the bird seemed to have disappeared. Eventually I headed to the coast path and tried to look back up the other side of the hedge but I couldn't see it at all. In the end I gave up and decided to come back later on. It was all rather unsatisfactory and meant that I was now 1 for 4 in terms of my Flamborough birds with just the RB Fly converted.

I headed back to Flamborough and to Holmes Gut. I gave it a good while longer searching for the Icky though with no luck. Eventually I gave up again and headed off for another try at the OBP as that had been reported again on the news services. There I found that there had been one very brief sighting a while ago but it was still not cooperating. I gave it a little while before deciding I'd had enough for the day and headed off to Bridlington where I'd booked a hotel for the evening. This was where I'd stayed last time I came up to Bempton to see the Albertross and the Turkestan Shrike. It was fairly basic but I quite liked it. I had dinner there and then turned in for the night, hoping that things would work out a little better tomorrow.

The next morning, I was up bright and early. I had breakfast alone in the dinning hall as it didn't officially open until 7:30 a.m. which was too late for me. I was out the door just after 7 a.m. and headed back the short distance to Holmes Gut to try one last time for the Ickterine Warbler. Now that it hadn't been seen since CM saw it a few minutes before my arrival, it was looking increasingly likely that it had gone. Still, it was worth one more try. I arrived to find just one other birder there. There was a brief moment of excitment when we thought we had it, though it turned out to be the elusive Acro from yesterday and on our brief views we weren't able to make out anything more on it. One RB Flycatcher was still around and occasinally giving good views but that was about it. 

Again, I managed half the Flycatcher

We birded the valley intently as the sun gradually rose though to no avail. Indeed the Flamborough news feed seemed a little quiet this morning and it rather felt like there'd been a clear-out overnight. The OBP came back negative (though would eventually turn up again much later in the day), there was a Red-flanked Bluetail near South Landing, the Daurian Shrike was back and a Grey Phalarope from yesterday evening was still present in Bridlington harbour. 

Eventually I gave up and headed back to Bemptom to try for the Shrike again. It was in a similar location to before though this time was showing as I arrived. The RSPB had also relented and allowed some limited encroachment onto their meadow. The bird was sitting with its back to us at the back of the hedge so I took a few shots though, predictably, it was partially obscured by a twig and the results were poor. 

Yet another obscured photo! This time of the 1w presumed Daurian Shrike

There was quite a large crows present (it was Saturday after all) and I didn't linger but soon headed down to the coast to peer at the sea briefly (just some Gannets) before heading back to the car. 

The crows of twitchers for the Shrike at Bempton

Time was marching on and I had a lunch rendezvous in York with my eldest daughter and my son. He has just started his first year undergraduate Mathematics degree there and I wanted to see how he was getting on. I just had time for one more bird and decided to do the Bridlington Grey Phalarope as that should be rather straight-forward. It was a 20 minute drive to the harbour where I found the bird right at the far end in the entrance mouth to the harbour, being tossed around on the waves. On the one hand, it was nice to see a Phalarope in their natural habitat bobbing about on the sea. However, it meant that the views were less than crippling of what can often be a most confiding species. Still, it was nice to see and I was pleased to have made another connection after yesterday's dippage. 

The Grey Phalarope was rather distant though the light was good enough for a photo

For context, this it the mouth of the harbour. You can just see the white dot that is the Phalarope in the water near the harbour entrance under the turquoise boxes

Then it was time to head off to York. As I had feared, there were huge traffic issues, trying to get into York. Even using the excellent Park & Ride, the jams around the ring road were tedious. However, the bus service into the city centre was excellent and I had a lovely lunch with my children. Then we had a wander around the city for a while including along the city walls. It was all very picturesque though absolutely heaving with people. 

York cathedral looking very nice in the sunshine

Late afternoon I decided that I had to head off so we all said our goodbyes. The journey home was fine though I had to stop at a service station a couple of times for a reviving cup of tea and in one case a quick power nap. On the way back I reflected on my birding break up to Yorkshire. In the end I'd seen some decent birds and came away with one bogey bird at last having fallen. I could have seen more if I'd connected with everything but on the other hand it could have been a lot worse and on balance I was contented enough with my trip. I arrived home just before 9 pm, fed the cat and then relaxed at home after my big Yorkshire Adventure.