Weekend back up

Thrashed the place, in between periods of heavy SE rain, mist, wind and clock changes ! Not a bad weekend by any standards but lacking the killer find. The 1st winter Med Gull spent a couple of hours on the village pond on Saturday afternoon (Oct 24th) and constitutes only the 2nd site record. Great vismig with Keith Clarkson at Speeton on Sunday morning (Oct 25th) produced over 1000 Siskin, 220 Tree Sparrow and several Crossbills cutting South in to the head wind to bypass Flamborough. The Lapland Bunting was a delight showing down to 10ft. The long weekend finished with 4 Whooper Swans on the deck in a large field on Buckton cliff top before departing SE, then over Flamborough before heading out over Bridlington Bay. Many leafs are down and winter is almost here, but just enough time for an eastern finale.

Siberian Chiffchaff

In the on-going dilemma that is Chiffchaffs, this bird at Buckton Hall on October 24th showed all the characteristics of Siberian Chiffchaff including frequently giving the very distinctive thin high pitched 'viii' call.

Cobalt blur-tail !

Red-flanked Bluetail, Bempton, October 24th 2009
This bird was incredibly confiding, actively feeding at the base of a small clump of willows. It often flew directly towards the appreciative crowd, grabbed an insect and then turned back into the wood creating an orange and cobalt blur ! The sharply pointed tail indicated this is a 1st winter individual with the pale supercillia perhaps suggest a male.

Crowned jewel

We had just arrived at the caravan at Buckton at 10pm on Thursday evening (Oct 22nd) when the amazing news broke of an Eastern Crowned Warbler in Trow Quarry, Co Durham. A long predicted 'first for Britain' which had been gradually getting closer in recent years with a one day record in Holland the most recent of the 4 previous Western Paleartic records.

GERMANY (Heligoland on 4 October 1843)
NORWAY (trapped and ringed at Jaeren, Rogaland, on 30 September 2002)
FINLAND (at Harrbada, Kokkola, on 23 October 2004
THE NETHERLANDS (at Katwijk aan Zee, Zuid-Holland, on 5 October 2007)

I decided to play it cool, and put the Buckton nets up regardless. Just after 8am the following morning news came through that it was still present, this and a Firecrest flirting with the nets made my mind up - head north ! We arrived just after mid day and joined the 400 other observers all surrounding a few clumped sycamores and elders in the bottom of a small quarry some 200 metres from the sea. The warbler was top draw, being almost vireo like in appearance and every bit rare ! We enjoyed good views through the scope from the upper deck of the quarry, watching the bird at eye level. It was sharing the trees with a fellow Siberian traveller, a Yellow-browned Warbler - thank god for Sycamores! The journey back to Buckton was full of anticipation with news of a Bluetail at Bempton and Dusky Warbler at Flamborough. Thank god for east winds!

Yebwa video

Skyscapes

The bottom image shows the main ringing locations on site at Buckton, the planted cliff top dell on the extreme far left, the main dell in the centre and the wood on the extreme right. The cliff top forms the horizon giving way to 400ft chalk cliffs.

In and over

After a lot of weather chart analysis, a late evening dash up to Buckton on October 14th and a bit of net erection in the small hours paid off when the first bird in the net the next day was a Yellow-browed Warbler (tenth I have ringed here since 2001). Early morning the site was buzzing with migrants, particularly Blackbirds which had arrived in some numbers no doubt due to the rain during the middle of the night. I had a strong feeling that a site tick was on the cards but I was surprised and delighted when a calling Woodlark floated over low to the west at 0830hrs. The next few days proved steady with over 65 birds ringed despite strong winds curtailing activities at times.

adult male

Sparrowhawk - adult male, ringed at Buckton October 17th. The weekend saw a bit of a raptor passage with Merlin and 2 Common Buzzards over. (click the images to appreciate this stunning bird fully !)

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young male

Sparrowhawk - 1st autumn male, ringed at Buckton 18th October.

Beds set on fire by Viking invaders !

The Vismig was always going to be good one day very soon and on receiving messages from Steve Blain and Mike Wallen this morning a quick dash to the Sandy Pinnacle was in order. I joined Steve and Colin Campbell who had already smashed 21,000 Redwings west ! Due to being on holiday I took over recording as Steve left for work. After another frantic ponecall I was joined by Matt Burgess, between 0925hrs and 1125hrs we had a further 7431 Redwings west. Further highlight was provided by 5 Ring Ouzels west in a forty minute period after 1012hrs - a pair and three singles, these being the first Ouzels seen on vismig in Bedfordshire.

The mornings total of 28,982 Redwing is amazing regardless of location, but here, it rewrites ornithology in Bedfordshire !

An account here from Steve Blain - http://steveblain.blogspot.com/2009/10/big-kahuna.html

Radde's Pitta

Although nationally several had turned up on October 10th I bet none were as difficult as this individual in Booted Gully on Flamborough Head. Most observers simply gave and didnt see it, but for those who had either the patience or nothing better to do last thing on a Sunday evening it showed well if pitta watching tactics were applied! I saw it for all of 6 seconds through a jungle of bramble at 5ft range. The fact I have any pictures is a miracle but should help with a description!

For those wondering... Booted gulley is a misnomer, it has never had any accepted connection with Booted Warbler to my knowledge and some may even prefer to call it by its map name of Sandholes ! A bit like my Bluethroat net ride at Buckton... one day !

coasting Osprey

On Sunday morning (11 Oct) I saw my second ever Osprey at Buckton thanks largely to a huge bit of luck. At 1025hrs I parked on the cliff top and turned on my Motorola radio and shouted Filey birders across the bay to see if they had been catching much. The reply came from Jack Whitehead who informed me that an Osprey had gone over Filey only 5 minutes before and was heading my way!

I was already in a good position but immediately realised that I was unable to see into the very corner of Filey Bay and that Dave Wardby had an Osprey come in-off at that point only a few weeks before. I raced along the cliff top and got to a clear vantage point where I could see the lot. After a few minutes I picked up a distant hulking bird being escorted in over the cliff edge - Osprey and assorted entourage included two Peregrines ! The bird was only just above cliff height and made land fall just to the east of the coast guard house at Speeton, over flying the radio mast near the Dotterel pub, it then continued inland in the direction of Bridlington. It was picked up a short time afterwards over Danes Dyke at Flamborough before heading out south towards the Withernsea coastline.

Amazingly the bird was first picked up over Scarborough at 1000hrs, Scarborough birders alerted Filey who had it go through at 1015hrs and so it went on. Good teamwork !

a sudden thrush of blood !

Over the past ten years early to mid October has yielded good numbers of incoming migrants at Buckton and on this occasion a weather pattern was developing that would bring rain and east winds on Friday night (Oct 9th) which would most likely drop birds on Saturday.

Saturday saw the predictions come true with 94 birds ringed from 4 nets including multiple Redwing, Song Thrush and Blackbirds. Also caught were 2 Chiffchaff, Willow Warbler, Brambling and interestingly 30 Reed Bunting and 10 Dunnocks. Many of the Blackbirds had long wing measurements and were clearly of continental origin, as was a very grey Robin.

The morning dawned with complete murk and frequent periods of rolling mist on a light wind that had swung from a south east with heavy rain overnight to a nor'wester - just perfect !

The highlight of the day happened at around 8am when extracting a bird from the 60ft net in the cliff top dell I suddenly became aware of urgent thrush flight calls then suddenly the very loud rush of wings, as a party of over 100 Redwings, 2 Ring Ouzels and several Song Thrushes avalanched high out of the sky into the patch of cover that I was stood in, birds were everywhere, bouncing in to the net, landing deep in to hawthorns and making an incredible noise and all at lightning speed!

These birds had set off the previous evening from Scandinavia or the Low Countries and Buckton was their next land fall - magic !I hope at least some of them enjoyed the huge sack of apples that I had put out for them. Later in the day the weather improved and hardly a single thrush of the 400 that had arrived during the morning was still present, these birds now safely inland to winter in the UK and beyond.

Good numbers of scarce birds were found along the coast notably Firecrests and Yellow-browed Warblers, despite a good kick around we failed to turn up anything unusual but did have 4 Ring Ouzels and two Short-eared Owls.

beach boys

The break to the Yorkshire coast got off to a good start when Neil Pearson found a very confiding Grey Phalarope feeding and swimming just off the tideline at South Landing, Flamborough on October 7th. We were driving up but just made it by dark and watched it at very close range in atmospheric light with the back drop of an illuminated Bridlington. We visited the beach several times over the next few days and Blyth appeared to be in favour !

The vanguard

Yellow-browed Warbler, always a delight, this one at very close range at Homes Gut, Flamborough North Landing.