Mid May lull!

It’s been pretty fast paced birding in Scarborough so far this month, with some hideously long shifts at work the last few days and with good birds still turning up it’s been hard to keep up with daily sightings updates as well as entering records into the report database.It’s all good though, with Steve and Tony dropping on a GREAT EGRET at Wykeham South Lake and Rob stumbling across a female Red-backed Shrike at Ravenscar the next day it has given me all the motivation I need to get myself out into the field at the next opportunity – Sunday 15^th.
After only 2 and a half hours sleep on Saturday night/Sunday morning I was up and heading to Long Nab with Nick.As usual the first hour was spent in the hut, that kettle doesn’t half get some usage!Action over the sea was pretty similar to what it was like last time I was here, Auks and Kittiwakes moving north providing much of the interest, although they were passing in larger numbers with 1454 Auks and 649 Kittiwakes logged.Highlights were 3 Goosander, 12 Manx Shearwater and 4 Whimbrel.As ever, I got itchy feet and left Nick to counting while I had a walk round. I needed to do something to keep my awake, having only 2 hours sleep and counting Auks is a quick way to drop off!Migrant wise it was dead, 2 Wheatear and a new singing Chiffchaff by Clifftop House were about the lot.
Whilst checking Hundale though I came across a dead female Chaffinch, one baring one of our rings, not too surprisingly, we do catch good numbers of Chaffinches here.

The Chaffinch ring - unfortunately not an amazing recovery, it was one of the birds ringed on 24th April this year.

Another session in the hut was about as productive as the first and by now even Nick was ready for a change of scenery so we both split up to check as many areas as possible.

Not long into my walk I came across a Ring Ouzel in the apple tree just south of the hut having presumably just arrived. It soon moved to Crook Ness where the local Blackbirds gave it some hassle and forced it off south along the cliffs.

Ring Ouzel just south of Crook Ness

Very little else was in the area but with news of Nick stumbling across a Garden Warbler, a rather scarce passage migrant at Long Nab I was enthused! It doesn’t take much!
Not long after that though a ‘tacking’ caught my attention in the hedges just east of Clifftop House, it eventually gave a brief view but confirmed itself as an acro, and it didn’t half look interesting based on the brief view I had.
I followed it by call as it moved north along the hedge occasionally giving the odd fleeting glimpse, not good enough though, so I called Nick on the radio for some help.
Unfortunately not too long after I had shouted him up it wandered into the territory of a Whitethroat which proceeded to kick the crap out of this unsuspecting acro which then flew west over open fields and towards a maze of hedges criss-crossing private land!
Searches of the hedge by Rocks Lane failed to produce it or anything else. Really frustrating!

After leaving Long Nab with the Mrs I decided to take a trip to Ravenscar on the off chance that female Red-backed Shrike was still in the area – it wasn’t.
A walk around in an attempt to locate a few migrants was a total failure with nothing new in evident at all.
So a rather quiet day all in all.
Looks like a change in the wind to the southwest is forecast for early next week, hopefully the recent northerlies will have held things up and the change will bring with it a good vis-mig session or two.