I have a long-running issue with Fea's-type Petrels, as any reader of this blog will know. So as I drove towards Flamborough early on Friday morning, it was yet another blow (but no surprise) to hear I had missed yet another of these Pterodromas heading north oast the cape. A frustrating start to my day's birding! Thankfully, the bitter emotional blow was soon forgotten as a lively couple of hours on the cliffs proved fruitful enough, with plenty of Sooty and Manx Shearwaters powering north, along with several skuas, plenty of ducks, and a few unexpected treats, such as an early Pale-bellied Brent Goose.
The lure of drift migrants in the bushes soon had me heading round the Old Fall loop and it didn't disappoint, with plenty of common warblers and several Pied and Spotted Flycatchers putting on a show. The activity on the leeward side of Old Fall plantation was a feast, with birds flitting actively in the warm sunshine, snapping up insects left and right. Nothing rarer stirred despite a good grilling, and the bird of the day, a Red-breasted Flycatcher in the Golf Course Willows failed to show for me. So, I headed back to York happy, with emotions lifted by some fab east coast birding, despite the best efforts of that elusive petrel.
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