Late August promise

The business end of August has now arrived and so far seems to have been dominated by false starts.
Castle Hill on 23^rd finally saw us getting in on the Willow Warbler action with at least 45 present, although with a distinct lack of any variety I assume most were of British origin.

A change in weather loomed and so on 25^th with the promise of light northeast wind and drizzle, I found myself on Castle Hill for 07.30am.
A meander down the north side produced half a dozen Willow Warbler but nothing else. Round Marine Drive wall was birdless until I arrived at the ‘booted’ plantation. A skulking warbler in there eventually gave itself up and materialised into a juvenile Whitethroat.
The sea was rather productive, at least it was after the low cloud lifted, so I stuck around there for a few hours, in that time I actually had a rather respectable sea-watch with several decent species including the first Caspian Gull in Scarborough during 2016, a fine 1^st year bird that passed north close in at 09.58am.
Also logged were Sooty Shearwater, Balearic Shearwater, 218 Teal, 20 Wigeon, 12 Redshank, Whimbrel, 2 Arctic Skua, Great Skua and 20 Common Tern.

During my sea-watch I logged 4 Willow Warbler, all of which arrived in off the sea and dived into the ‘booted’ plantation before filtering off.
With renewed optimism I gave both the north and south sides a decent look over but still came up empty handed. About 16 Willow Warbler were present in all.
This was to be the last time I would make it out due to the nature of my job and the bank holiday weekend fast approaching, there was one thing though that kept me going throughout the Friday and Saturday graft, knowing I had Sunday off, and with the forecast looking great for the Sunday I wasn’t complaining too much.

I finished work on the Saturday night (well Sunday morning) at 01.30am and even managed to fit in a well-earned pint or two of Heineken before grabbing a precious few hours before the alarm rudely awoke me.
A few minutes after the silence button was used the realisation of its reason for being set entered my head and I shot (slowly dragged) myself out of bed and towards the kettle.
You can always count on a nice cuppa to motivate you further and by 08.00am I was on Castle Hill full of optimism.

Unfortunately it transpired that the weather forecast was wrong (shock horror!) and so searching for migrants in grim persistent drizzle, at times heavy, was a little pointless, I did manage to pull out singles of Wheatear and Whitethroat behind the Marine Drive wall.
The sea was thankfully rather active, at least it was after the low cloud lifted a little, a few duck, waders and 3 Arctic Skua past in quick succession made for an easy decision, Long Nab.
Over the course of the sea-watch a rather respectable list was amassed, highlights being a Pomarine Skua and 2 Black Tern south as well as the 27 Arctic Skua south, with another 2 north.
Other noteworthy records were 9 Wigeon, singles of Pintail and Shoveler, 295 Teal, 199 Common Scoter, 1 Little Egret, 28 Knot, 2 juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, 46 Sandwich Tern, 45 Common Tern and a single Arctic Tern.

The next day was bright, sunny and warm. Perfect conditions to search for all those migrants that arrived in yesterday’s terrible conditions, well that was my thought process!
In truth it didn’t pan out that way.
Castle was dead while a Lesser Whitethroat on Scalby Nab was likely a local bird. In Jackson’s Bay there were 5 Sanderling, 5 Dunlin and 2 Ringed Plover among small numbers of Oystercatcher and Redshank.
Ravenscar at least provided a little more interest with 4 Willow Warbler, a Garden Warbler, 3 Whitethroat and a Whinchat as well as Meadow Pipits in fairly decent numbers, now building up waiting to head south in the next decent southwesterly blow.

Yellow-legged Gull with Common Terns

Teal and Wigeon on the move

Whitethroat -trying to act rare at first

Wheatear

More late July wader action

The 20^th July was a pretty good, if rather long, day in the field with a very autumnal feel to proceedings.
With the warm nights I haven’t been sleeping too well and after finishing work at around 01.00 followed by a couple of hours of broken sleep I set out early and was in North Bay counting north bound Black-headed Gulls by 04.45!
The light was poor but once I had positioned myself on Scalby Nab I was rewarded for my early start almost instantly with 2 Avocet heading south, a species I had all but written off this year, it’s only the 3^rd autumn record, the last being 3 I had south off Marine Drive on 24^th July 2014! Those birds were quickly located at Filey Dams while these two arrived at Thornwick pool at Flamborough later in the morning.

By 06.00 I had made it as far as Long Nab and joined Chris. My walk north produced 4 juvenile Stonechat, a fifth was on the wires behind the hut!
The rest of that morning was very entertaining with wildfowl and waders moving, at times in decent numbers. 20 Manx Shearwater were logged but rather unexpected were the first 2 Sooty Shearwater of the year, both heading south.
Wildfowl totals for the day were 1 Wigeon south, 2 Mallard north, 47 Teal south 19 north, 1 drake Pochard north, 3 Tufted Duck south, 83 Common Scoter south 506 north.
While southbound wader totals were 3 Black-tailed Godwit, 3 Whimbrel, 4 Curlew, 26 Redshank, 2 Turnstone, 69 Knot, 22 Sanderling and 57 Dunlin.
A single adult Mediterranean Gull passed north while 131 Swift, 29 Sand Martin and 2 Flava passed south.

A few slower days since have produced small numbers of the waders mentioned above, that was until a short watch from Marine Drive during the evening of the 24^th over high tide.
Passing south there were 23 Oystercatcher, 7 Black-tailed Godwit, 7 Whimbrel, 3 Redshank, 5 Turnstone, 30 Knot, 33 Sanderling, 153 Dunlin and the highlight – an adult Curlew Sandpiper at 19.21.
Only my 4^th personal Curlew Sand in the Scarborough District, all of which have been seen passing by offshore, three of which have been of Marine Drive! Viewing passage waders from here offers the best views with birds pretty much at eye level and often much closer than they are off Long Nab.

Black-headed Gull heading south along Marine Drive

This week also saw my juvenile Great Black-backed Gulls fledging, only the 3^rd Yorkshire breeding record for this species, all of which have occurred in Scarborough with this same pair successfully fledging one from my Flat last year. At least I can now safely leave my home without dodging the brute of a male protecting his juvs!

One of the two juvenile Great Black-backs a few days before fledging