Whitby Desert

With a remarkable lack of a hangover, the annual New Year's Day visit to the coast was on, so we headed up over the Moors to Whitby. The location was nothing to do with the fact that a rather showy male Desert Wheatear had been found a few days previously....A short walk from the Abbey Car Park and we located the buff and black desert sprite hopping about in a grassy field, looking quite at home, despite being thousands of miles off course. After showing it to the kids - nice tick for them! - it made it's way closer, feeding actively from the barbed wire fence and then a dry stone wall. A very smart male bird and only the second I have seen in Yorkshire. A nice start to 2018 too. We then went on to Sandsend beach to give Lunar a swim and the kids the chance to blow off steam. Great scenes!

 A very picturesque twitch, in thelee of Whitby Abbey.