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 !