Seabirding

 

Another day leading Yorkshire Coast Nature pelagics off Staithes. The sea was still lumpy, getting over the big northerly swell that had been running all week. This made finding stuff tricky for the first few hours, but hitting the five mile, the swell eased considerably, and we found a big feeding frenzy, with 300 Gannets, 200 Grey Seals, 12 Minke Whales, and best of all, a Great Shearwater feeding with 80+ Sooty Shearwaters. The Great Shear fed by diving from the surface and would disappear for 20-30 seconds, clearly going deep to hunt Herring. The Sooties were also doing this. 

 

Adding further class, a Blue Fulmar cruised past giving great views and my first pics of this form. Also noted, four Bonxies, a single Arctic Skua, Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns and a dapper juvenile Caspian Gull.

 

Blue Fulmar, Sooty and Great Shearwaters, plus Fulmar and Kittiwake

Casp.

Blacktoft Renaissance

Needing a wader fix, I have had two recent visits to Blacktoft Sands, the first on 12th August, and then a second today, the 24th. The first visit was with my folks, and was really lovely, with great views of Bearded Tits scurrying along the mud at the edge of the reedbed like ginger mice, plus lots of waders (8 Spotted Redshanks, 149 Black-tailed Godwits, 9 Green Sandpipers, 25 Ruff, 3 Greenshank - pic above etc), a prolonged Bittern fly-past and several Water Rails. 

 

Ginger mice

 Water Rail

 Gorgeous juvenile Black-tailed Godwits, fresh in from Iceland

Moulting adult Spot Red
... 

With a few hours to kill this morning, I went back again and enjoyed really grilling the waders on the lagoons, including two smart juvenile Curlew Sandpipers, seven Spotted Redshanks (4 adults, 3 juveniles), 24 Ruff, 45 Black-tailed Godwits, 3 Greenshank, etc. The ginger mice were still in evidence, along with a few Water Rails, plus some excitement provided by a couple of Hobbies, hunting over the reedbed. 

 

Top: Curlew Sandpiper with Dunlins; bottom, Greenshank with two Spotted Redshanks.

 

 

South Atlantic Style

Another seawatch at Flamborough Head, with nine Sooty Shearwaters the highlight, plus 30 Manx Shearwaters, juvenile Caspian Gull, two Little Gulls, c250 Common Terns, c100 Sandwich Terns, Whimbrel and a Minke Whale. A quiet walk round the Old Fall loop revealed one Whinchat, a Lesser Whitethroat and a few Willow Warblers. 

 

Second Pec

After enjoying the Pectoral Sandpiper at Wheldrake Ings earlier in the month, I was quite surprised and delighted to find another bird there this morning. On entering the Pool Hide, I was initially fearing the worst, as most of the water had drained away with only a few wet muddy areas and the occasional puddle. A quick scan revealed virtually nothing in evidence. 

 

 

Switching to my scope, I noticed a handful of Snipe at the back, with a couple of Green Sandpipers and scanning right, picked up a gang of elegant and pristine juvenile Ruff, wading about in the shallows. Then I noticed another smaller, darker bird - an adult Pectoral Sandpiper! The bird was pecking about behind the tern raft, so at quite a distance, but the clear breast band and attenuated rear end, together with its smaller size and proportionately longer bill and shorter legs gave its identity away. Nice.

The Pec was quite distant initially, but the pool ain't that big, so it was still reasonable through the scope. After a bit, the waders flushed and flew into the middle of the pool, giving much better views. I watched the bird feeding with the eight Ruff for a couple of hours, before I had to head back. Also noted, 8 Ruff, 7 Green Sandpipers, 10+ Snipe, 2 Marsh Harriers and 2 Yellow Wagtails. 

Following the bird ten days ago at Wheldrake Ings, this is my third in the York area and my second self-found bird, following a pristine juvenile at Grafham Water in 2006, co-found with Mark Hawkes.

 

Our Grafham juvenile from September 2006, pic by Stuart Elsom:

 

A Quick Pec!

Duncan rang while I was walking Luna to say he'd sent me a pic of a bird he had seen on the Pool at Wheldrake Ings, that he thought might be a Pectoral Sandpiper. I opened Whatsapp and sure enough, an image of a Pec Sand presented itself. Nice one Dunc! I shot home, grabbed my gear and headed over to Wheldrake. Despite the heavy gear swinging round my neck, I just about managed to run most of the mile or so down to the Pool Hide, and was delighted that Dunc was still watching the bird when I arrived. 

The bird, an adult, was pecking about in the wet mud among a flock of loafing Lapwings, showing nicely in the morning sunshine. This is only the second Pec I have seen in the York area (see here for my write-up of my first), and the first adult, so very welcome - hence the dash! There has been a little flurry of Pecs into the UK in the last fortnight and so great that York got in on the action. 

Craig, Rob and Jane turned up before the flock was flushed by a hunting Sparrowhawk. At first the Pec, which called, a Bee-eater like prrrt, circled around with the Lapwings, but after a bit, before heading off high south. It seemed to have gone, and Stuart Rapson turned up two minutes too late. Fortunately for Stuart, it came back in ten minutes later and whilst landing out of sight, it came back out after I had left. This is the tenth record for the York area. Also present, nine Green Sandpipers, c100 Lapwings, Water Rail, Marsh Harrier, Cetti's Warbler and Willow Tits.

 

Seawatch Season

A great start to the seawatch season with a moderate northwesterly blow pushng a few good seabirds into the North Sea. Following yesterday's handful of Great and Cory's Shearwaters past Flamborough Head, I was up early and heading east hoping that the wind, that had continued overnight, would continue to reward.

 I hadn't missed much by the time I arrived on the cliff at 7.30am, and the first bird in my scope view was a Manx Shearwater. The sea was large with plenty of white crests, and the cool northerly made it feel more like autumn that early August! An hour later, James Spencer announced 'Cory's!' and moments later I picked up the large form of this southern shearwater, slowly heading north. True to form, it made its way through in a very relaxed style, taking the best part of five minutes to do so, allowing me to attempt some phonescoped video. It was fairly distant, but the views were reasonable through the scope. 

 

Ten minutes later, and a spooned-up pale phase adult Pomarine Skua cruised north into the wind, low over the sea. A cracker, and one of my favourite seabirds, although I have not seen many in early August.  Terns were very much in evidence, with lots of small parties of Arctics heading north with a few Commons and noisy Sandwich Terns thrown in for good measure. Good numbers of juveniles among the Arctics suggest that some colonies have been spared from bird flu. A fine intermediate adult Arctic Skua headed north, and the tally of Manx Shearwaters topped 20 in the first hour. Cetaceans were in evidence too, with several Harbour Porpoises seen despite the rough seas, followed by a pod of c10 Bottlenose Dolphins that passed close inshore, heading north, followed a few minutes later by two more. Later, glimpses of fins in among a Kittiwake feeding frenzy eventually led to confirmation views of two Minke Whales, my first of the summer. Among the flock, I also saw a single Sooty Shearwater, my only sighting of the day. Also noted, a Whimbrel, c30 Common Scoters and 25 Teal. As midday approached, passage eased off, so I decided to head home.