Yellow-broweds arrive!

More vis-migging and a few netting sessions have dominated mid-September so far with little in the way of eastern promise yet. A hit mid-week over the 13^th, 14^th and 15^th didn’t quite deliver the goods.

Over the three days a few highlights were a female Merlin south past the ringing site at Long Nab on the 13^th during the best Meadow Pipit passage of the week – 296. Also moving were an Arctic and 2 Great Skua, a Sand Martin, 80 Swallow, 15 House Martin, 4 Grey Wagtail, a Flava, a Tree Pipit and 6 Siskin.

A Pied Flycatcher was at Clifftop House on the 15^th with the only other new in birds that day being fine Lesser Whitethroat in the ringing plantation, expertly avoiding the nets and a Redwing in off the sea, the first of the autumn in Scarborough.

Highlights in the hand included the first Stonechat to be ringed at Long Nab, an adult male, a few Meadow Pipit and a continental Song Thrush as well as a supporting cast of a couple of Goldcrest and Chiffchaff and singles of Whitethroat and Blackcap. A retrap Coal Tit was one rung back in 2014.

Another hint of the desired wind produced a huge fall of Yellow-browed Warblers on the east coast of Britain, particularly Yorkshire.

As expected Scarborough took its fair share and the day record was broken by two when 18 were logged on 21^st.

Most of my time in the field was spent ringing up at Long Nab with no fewer than three of the stripy Asian sprites gracing the plantation with one duly trapped and ringed.

Very few other migrants were involved, a Lesser Whitethroat was in Crook Ness on the 21^st while a Garden Warbler was on Castle Hill on 18^th during a quick visit I made there after work.

Another addition to the Long Nab ringing list on the 21^st was a rather unexpected Skylark, particularly because it bagged itself in a net totally surrounded by trees!

A little vis-mig was on offer too over the 20^th and 21^st with the odd Swallow and House Martin still trickling through, a 200+ count of Meadow Pipit, 8 Grey Wagtail and at long last a few finches with 40 Siskin and 12 Redpoll sp on the 21^st.

Waders too were moving with ones and twos of Snipe, Grey and Golden Plover with slightly more Dunlin and Ringed Plover logged.

The good autumn for duck also continued with Teal, Pintail, Wigeon and Shoveler all moving through on the 20^th while a drake Mandarin present on both 20^th and 21^st was a Long Nab first!

At least 4 Lapland Bunting have been present in the stubble fields at Long Nab with a further 2 logged south on 21^st, including 1 in off the sea.

Despite the arrival of Yellow-browed Warblers I had to head home for just before 13.00 unfortunately a list of jobs the length of my arm being the reason, they had to be completed ready for my departure northwards towards Shetland with the Scarborough crew early on the 22^nd…….

Wigeon, Teal and Pintail on the move

Yellow-browed Warbler - Long Nab. A fine way to begin 15 days off work, who knows what Shetland will bring?

Skylark - Long Nab

Early September update

Early September has been dominated by south-westerly winds and rather settled, at times very warm weather. A hint of east wind only produced a couple of common migrants.A decent day at Long Nab produced highlights of 2 Sooty Shearwater, 9 Bar-tailed Godwit, a Whimbrel, 2 Knot, a juvenile Curlew Sandpiper and a Ruff, mostly over the sea, while moving inland 18 Swift. 4 Skylark, 1 Sand Martin, 13 Swallow, 80 House Martin, 3 Flava and 62 Meadow Pipit.
As well as light passage the fields, now freshly cut, were alive with birds, mainly Meadow Pipit but various other bits with them too, September is really a fantastic month.
At least 4 Yellow Wagtail were scattered throughout the fields and almost every bale had a Wheatear on. It soon became obvious that they were arriving in off with a final total of 11.
A check of Jackson’s Bay that afternoon, hoping for a Buff-breasted Sand only produced a juvenile Yellow-legged Gull, 28 Ringed Plover, 19 Dunlin, 2 Bar-tailed Godwit and 27 Sandwich Tern.

Wheatears at Long Nab

Yellow-legged Gull in Jackson's Bay

Unfortunately I missed the next day e to work, highlights were a couple of Cory’s Shearwater.

I did however get out on the 6^th, and with forecast south west wind I was expecting a decent southerly passage.

A birding year consists mainly of routine ‘days in the field’ always hoping for something but ultimately not, as a result they aren’t very long lived in the memory. Occasionally there are those good days, whether it be a decent bird or good volume of commoner species, the days that are truly great and live long in the memory are few and far between (unless you live at Spurn maybe!), possibly as few as half a dozen a year, depending on how much time you spend out of course. The 6^th was one of them, and maybe my third or fourth great day of the year and one that just goes to prove that it doesn’t need a rarity to provide those memorable days.

Arriving at Long Nab it was immediately apparent that hirundines and pipits were moving in large numbers, I took me 25 minutes to walk 70 meters to my chosen spot I would stand for the coming few hours.

Between 06.45 and 11.20 (which is when the passage had completely stopped) I finished with totals of 77 Sand Martin (the highest September count of Sand Martin for Scarborough), 2402 Swallow (the 3^rd highest count for Scarborough) and 1651 House Martin (the 2^nd highest count in Scarborough) and 1291 Meadow Pipit (always noteworthy when a four digit tally is reach for Meadow Pipits in Scarborough).

Add to those totals of a Swift, a Kestrel, 12 Skylark, 1 Whinchat, 3 Tree Sparrow, 3 Flava, 2 Alba, 1 Tree Pipit, 45 Linnet and 18 Goldfinch.

With most birds passing through within a 2 hour window it really made for a fantastic mornings birding, at times too much for one observer to handle!

House Martin through Long Nab

While further down the coast at Hunmanby Gap up to 8500 more Swallow (as well as slightly higher numbers of pretty much everything) were logged I assume many must have cut down the Vale of Pickering hitting the coast somewhere around the Blue Dolphin before cutting south straight towards the Gap.

I really would have struggled to keep up if all those Swallows had passed me at the Nab!

I was out again on the 8^th, mainly hoping for something that had drifted in during the small window of east wing over the 7^th.
Castle Hill appeared quiet, that was until I reached the ‘booted’ plantation, it was alive with birds! Unfortunately not the hoped for migrants, instead 4 Blue Tit and 2 Great Tit (a plantation tick!).
Whilst making sure there wasn’t a migrant lurking in the depths (there wasn’t) Chris informed me of a juvenile Roseate Tern heading south off Long Nab.
After 10 minutes I had picked up a small group of Common Terns and with them was the juvenile Roseate Tern (the first in Scarborough this year), albeit poor views as it headed away into the glare.

Blue Tit 'booted plantation'

Great Tit 'booted plantation'

I decided to do a little sea watching, covering it whilst Chris searched for migrants up at Long Nab.

I noted a few things, a Turnstone, 2 Sanderling and a Shoveler south but then picked up a small Gull feeding about 600 meters off shore with a scattered group of Black-headed Gulls and Kittiwakes.
I was immediately drawn to the all pale/white underwing and, only showing dark primary tips and thin black trailing edge to the secondaries.
It was smaller than the accompanying Black-headed Gulls, maybe by 15% and all over appeared more dainty, more agile and graceful.
Upperparts it showed a dark bar along the coverts with that thin dark trailing edge to the secondaries along with black tips to the primaries with what appeared to be quiet a large white wedge on the outer primaries, although it looked ‘mucky’ at range due to black shafts running up the outermost primaries.
The mantle was clean pale grey while the tail was white with a thin dark tail band.
Although distant the bill appeared small and dark with a rather neat dark spot behind the eye, Bonaparte’s Gull was firmly in my mind!

I watched the bird over the next 8 -10 minutes but unfortunately it, and the whole feeding flock began heading out and north eventually causing me to lose the bird.
Hours of searching later I still hadn’t relocated it in North Bay, unfortunately it didn’t join the Black-headed Gulls at Scalby Mills either and Chris drew a blank over in Jackson’s Bay.
A southbound juvenile Little Gull was very handy to see, and I was able to compare sizes with some Black-headed Gulls, the bird I was watching earlier was somewhere between the two species in size.
Hopefully the Gull will do the decent thing and come in to Scalby Mills sometime in the future.

Spending time at Scalby Mills did at least mean I picked up a few things, a couple of Sanderling feeding among the rock pools among the Herring and Great Black-backed Gulls, 2 juvenile Lesser Black-backed Gulls were also picked out.

Little Gull south past Scalby Mills

A very frustrating day all in all, but one off those experiences that will hopefully play its part somewhere in the future.

August finale

The last two days of August passed by rather uneventfully.
With light southwest winds forecast I was hoping for some passage and so on the mornings of both 30^th and 31^st I found myself on the cliffs.
Unfortunately it was rather slow going, highlights south on the 30^th were single Ringed Plover, Whimbrel and Arctic Skua, 9 Swift, 63 Swallow, 6 House Martin, 1 Flava and 6 Meadow Pipit.
One of the juvenile Yellow-legged Gulls was still blogging off Long Nab where there were 2 Common Sandpiper feeding along the rocks and a Stonechat was at Crook Ness.

The 31^st produced 46 Common Tern north and 10 Meadow Pipit, 42 House Martin, 28 Swallow, 3 Sand Martin, 10 Meadow Pipit and 2 Grey Wagtail south.
Waders in Jackson’s Bay whilst I were there included 2 Knot, 7 Dunlin, 23 Ringed Plover and a Sanderling while a showy Dunlin and a Whimbrel were in North Bay.
With little action detected I decided to do the honourable, but ultimately pointless, thing and indulge in a little bush bashing, hoping that something decent will have pitched up after coasting down from further north.
Only 2 Willow Warbler were noted during a couple of hours, slow going!
My final check before heading home was Marvels, the old theme park site, now a patch of wasteland which often produces plenty of migrants. Hoping for a Wryneck I thoroughly worked the site but saw virtually nothing!
Butterflies were the only things of note with several Painted Lady, numerous Peacock and only a single Small Tortoiseshell, it really has been a poor year for this species!

Dunlin - North Bay

Painted Lady

Painted Lady

Peacock

Small Tortoiseshell

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

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

Late June/early July

The end of June was fairly quiet, hints of Swift passage and wader movement began to creep in with a few more rather autumnal feels to days at Long Nab.

Wednesday 22^nd produced 98 Swift south, 6 Curlew in off and south, an Arctic Tern north and Common Scoter numbers were 81 north and 39 south.
The Sedge Warbler was still holding territory in Crook Ness.

Offshore on the 29^th - Common Scoter were passing by in rather decent numbers, 392 north and 52 south, other wildfowl on the move included 12 Wigeon north and 3 Teal north plus 7 south.
Curlew were on the move with 40 south 9 north, the southbound birds brought with them the first 5 Whimbrel of the autumn too.

Highlight of the day though was a Little Tern that flew north close inshore at 10.10hrs, not a particularly easy bird to catch up with in Scarborough with on average only 1 – 2 records a year. It is unsurprisingly the first of 2016 in and takes the Scarborough District year list on to a healthy 204.
Ten summer plumaged Black-headed Gull flew north offshore with a further 6 feeding out in Burniston Bay.

Inland Swifts were steadily moving south with 252 logged. A single House Martin and 3 Swallow also passed south.
The first Corn Bunting for the Nab of the year was calling away on the wires behind the hut briefly before moving off south.

I was again at Long Nab on 6^th, 7^th and 8^th of July with all days providing plenty of interest.
The 6^th saw a few duck on the move north, a Gadwall, 4 Teal and 64 Common Scoter while wader interest was provided by 3 Oystercatcher south, a Bar-tailed Godwit north, 13 Whimbrel south and 7 Curlew south 31 north. A trickle of Black-headed Gulls coming in from the east and heading north numbered 54 by the time I left, 4 Arctic Tern and an Arctic Skua headed north.
Inland things were pretty quiet, heading south were 4 Swift, a Sand Martin, 3 Swallow, a Flava and 2 Grey Wagtail.

The 7^th was an improvement. An early surprise was a fine male Whinchat with 2 accompanying juveniles that moved south along the cliff top. Swifts were the main feature with 994 logged during my time there, the movement just stopped at around midday, frustrating that the 1000 mark was just out or reach. Sand Martins were also moving through in steady numbers with 66 south.
Offshore things were a little quieter, 9 Whimbrel and 6 Curlew flew south and 16 Teal and a Common Tern headed north. Highlight was the first returning Mediterranean Gull of the autumn, a fine adult summer that came in and flew north.

Swifts were moving but in fewer numbers on the 8^th with only 447 however Sand Martins were still steady with 82 through.
Waders consisted 3 Whimbrel, 4 Oystercatcher, and singles of Dunlin and Ringed Plover south.
Even more surprising than the Whinchats yesterday was a Willow Tit that just appeared in the grass by the hut, hung around for a minute or two, and then moved off south along the cliffs. Only the fourth record of Willow Tit for Long Nab following the bird we trapped in early spring this year and two trapped in the autumn of 2013, all of which were only ever seen in the ringing plantation!

Whinchats by the hut

Swifts passing through

Swift passing the hut

Willow Tit

Willow Tit