And so it begins...

The first week of July for me has been rather enjoyable with bits of interest passing through on every visit to Long Nab, however it was often lacking that little bit, volume of birds mainly, waders were moving but with only ones and twos added to the notebook each hour it was often painfully slow.
With a few more bits moving through during Nick’s watch on the evening of the 9^th I met up with him at 06.15 on the 10^th and began another Long Nab watch.

And okay so nothing was moving in huge numbers, not that I expected them to be but it felt that little bit better, it felt like we were getting closer to those good days.
Some of the highlights were a Little Egret north, an Oystercatcher, 48 Whimbrel, 2 Curlew and a Greenshank, and a juvenile Cuckoo south.
But the main feature was Swifts and Sand Martins heading south, with 920 of the former and 498 of the latter, that being the 2^nd largest Sand Martin movement through Long Nab.

Cuckoo - Long Nab

Although rather slow at times the 11^th proved to be a much better day. On my arrival at Crook Ness at 05.50 Swifts were moving south in good numbers, within 15 minutes I had clicked over 350 but a small shower arriving in from the southwest killed it off, very few were added thereafter, my final total was 390.
Sand Martins were still on the move in good numbers with a further 177 heading south.

With little action going on behind the hut inland it meant I could focus on the sea. Throughout the full watch a rather respectable list was amassed, but don’t be fooled, there were some very slow periods.
The first July record of Pale-bellied Brent Goose for Scarborough was of a single flying south, it was later seen past Flamborough and was surely the same bird seen arriving in at Beacon Ponds at Spurn during the evening.
Two adult Mediterranean Gulls flew north throughout the day, the first at 06.09 and the other at 08.38. A fine adult Little Gull flew south rather close in, a Red-breasted Merganser flew north and what was possibly the Little Egret seen heading north yesterday flew south today.
A single Common Tern passed south, an Arctic Tern flew north, as did a pale morph Arctic Skua.

Little Gull - Long Nab

Other interest was provided by waders, Redshank were the most numerous with 33 south, also recorded were 1 Oystercatcher, 2 Whimbrel, 3 Curlew, 2 Dunlin, 7 Knot and a Turnstone.

A slow watch on a day I expected action was a little frustrating, although in the 8 hours I persevered I did log a few bits of interest, most noteworthy of all was a flock of 7 Little Egret that flew north just under a mile offshore, a new day record count for Long Nab following 5 I had fly north there on 14^th July last year, a year and a day earlier!
Also worthy of mention was a Velvet Scoter that flew north as well as 113 Common Scoter and 7 Teal, 22 Cormorant and a Great Skua which did the same.
Waders on the move included 3 Curlew north, 5 Whimbrel north, 2 south and 3 Oystercatcher south. Inland 64 Swift and 87 Sand Martin moved south.
My walk home produced a fine juvenile Dunlin in North Bay.

Little Egrets - Long Nab

Sand Martin - Long Nab

Dunlin - North Bay