The business end of August has now arrived and so far seems to have been
dominated by false starts.
Castle Hill on 23rd 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 25th 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 1st 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.
Castle Hill on 23rd 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 25th 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 1st 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.
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| Yellow-legged Gull with Common Terns |
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| Teal and Wigeon on the move |
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| Whitethroat -trying to act rare at first |
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| Wheatear |
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