Tundra comes to Elvington

After another disappointing visit to Castle Howard yesterday morning, whereby the highlight was covering the car in mud, a gratefully-received text from Russ Slack lightened my mood as it proclaimed he had found 2 Tundra Bean Geese in a field near Elvington, with 2 Pink-feet and a White-front.

After lunch, we headed up there to find a huge goose flock feeding in winter wheat near the waterworks. I soon picked up a family group of White-fronts in the nearest Greylags -nice - and then more. So, some more birds had arrived! Two birds sleeping at the back of the field looked good for the Tundras, but they were facing me, so I could not be sure. I continued to scan, picking up two Pink-footed Geese and two Egyptian Geese among the hordes of Greylags and Canadas. Failing to find any more likely candidates, I switched my attention back to the original suspects. After a few minutes, one bird suddenly stood up, revealing smart white edgings to tertials and scaps, a fairly long orange bill and best of all, bright orange legs. It's mate woke up too and soon the pair started to wander about grazing the crop. It was really interesting to compare these Tundras to the Taigas which in the last few years I have become far more familiar with. The birds were clearly smaller and shorter-necked, with smaller bills. Altogether the appearance was of a dark, brown Pink-footed Goose, with orange bare parts, and browner plumage, with the white fringing to the upperparts being quite distinctive. Certainly nothing like the big, bulky, long-necked Taigas of the Yare Valley. So the total count was c300 Greylags, 100 Canadas, 2 Tundra Bean, 2 Pink-footed 13 White-fronted Geese and 2 Egyptian Geese.

Below: Tundra Bean Geese (top) and White-fronts.

More Fog

Went to Castle Howard Sunday morning, but annoyingly the pesky fog stayed all day so the hordes of geese I was looking for stayed just out of view in the murk. Saw a handful of Bramblings feeding on mast under the beeches and several Goldeneye.

The Fog

Worked at Spurn in the morning, covering the gate for a few hours. Lots of migrants heading south early on, c100 Tree Sparrows, small parties of Chaffinches, one Brambling, and four Mistle Thrushes heading north. Two Chiffchaffs around the Warren, one of which looked very brown and grey, a bit Tristis like, but my views weren't good enough to be anywhere near sure. Barry and Toby appeared with a fine imm male Sparrowhawk at one point they'd caught, which was nice to see, apart from when Barry just let go of it without warning and it nearly took my head off!
The fog rolled in late morning and migration stopped. Had a quick walk at the point at lunch and saw the Woodlark feeding with Redwings and Chaffinches on the football pitch, looking a bit dishevelled, but a fine bird nevertheless. Lots of Robins on the road on the way back to the Warren and plenty of Blackies on the road around Kew.

To twitch or not to twitch

It is always a shock to find several text messages, missed calls and emails on my phone late afternoon, and once I had had a look I realised that Andy Gibson had found an Isabelline Wheatear at YWT Spurn. Doh! No chance of me getting there before dark, so will just have to change my plans for the morning and head down the Humber. During the evening I began to get real pangs of doubt about going for this cracking Yorkshire rare. I had planned to go to Flamborough in the hope of finding a Sibe Accentor. Joining the crowds at Spurn certainly wouldn't help this.

Anyway, by the time I got up at 6am, I had decided that the Izzy was a bird I really should make the effort for. Shortly, I arrived at a murky Spurn and was ushered into a space by Andy, who had already texted me to say the bird was still showing along the Humber shore. I bumped into Tony Martin with his mate Mark, and we strolled up the road. We soon arrived at the scene, spotting Tim Jones and Chris Gomersall who I had planned to travel with already watching the bird. We quickly got on the bird, which was feeding energetically on the beach. What a cracker!

Even at a distance and in the early morning light, this bird looked great, very pale, upright with a stand out black alula, pale wing coverts and tertials, white fore-super and amazingly long black legs. The tail which was mostly black with white base-sides, was wagged forcibly, a bit like a Pied Wagtail. After a while, the bird took flight, looped round the line of birders on the beach and landed nearer the Warren. We moved position and the three of us on a hunch decided that if we hung way back from the line of advancing scopes, if the bird was flushed it may well return to where it started. A little while later, a car flushed the bird from between the opposing ranks of birders and sure enough, the bird looped round over the saltmarsh - underwings and general overall bird looking very pale in flight against the dark Humber mud and dropped on the shore 20 metres away, where the three of us got our closest views. Soon the other birders arrived and the Wheatear moved further up the shore again. It seemed this cat and mouse game would continue, so having had some belting views, we decided to go off and look for our own stuff.

My temporary 'scope aint that good for digiscoping! Also, I managed to bust my bins today too. What is it with me, Spurn and optics? Some awesome shots were taken by Ian Smith yesterday - here

Hordes of Redwings, Fieldfares and Blackbirds were coming in off, along with several Woodcock, a couple of Snow Bunts and a Brambling. Others reported Twite, Lap Bunts and a Short-eared Owl. A walk round the triangle was enjoyable and full of birds, but no other rares showed up. Tony and Mark headed for Sammy's Point, and I did a spell on the gate. At 11.20 I decided I best get back, so despite the fantastic birding to be had, I headed back west, to York.

 Redwings. Everywhere.

Wheldrake, I've missed you

Work visit to the Ings today with a potential funder. No water yet, so 14 Whooper Swans on the Refuge was a nice surprise. A huge flock of c500 Fieldfare near Swantail, plus a Willow Tit. Not much else going on.

A visit to Filey last weekend revealed very little except 14 Purple Sands on the Brigg and a late Arctic Tern.

Oh and I am glad I went for the Castle Howard Fudge - it left the following day and presumably is the bird that has turned up at Calder Valley.

A Stonechat at Spurn.

Nyroca rocks

Twitched a Ferruginous Duck found by Dave Richardson at Castle Howard this afternoon. A fine drake, with pure white wingbars and undertail coverts, pale eye, nice black bill nail, solid dark upperparts and rich chestnut head and breast, concolorous with flanks. Dark rear border to flanks setting off white undertail nicely. White belly patch noted when the bird roll-preened. A smart bird, though very active which made it tricky to pick up at first. Also noted, Russ Slack and Ollie Metcalfe, plus c30 Tufties, c50 Wigeon and a Chiffchaff. Despite Russ giving me a go with his scope - I'm using an old Kowa at the mo - I failed to get any decent pics, though one does illustrate the wingbars nicely.

Go East

So whilst everyone else was dipping the Rufous-tailed Robin, we packed up the kids and headed east to Filey.

The day was stunning and we had a great time exploring the rockpools on the Brig. Not many birds present though a late Arctic Tern was roosting on the Brig, along with 14 Purple Sandpipers. Up Long Lane I could only find a Chiffchaff, though a Sparrowhawk nearly took my head off and nailed a Blackie literally feet from me, which screamed horribly.

Last night was Autumnwatch at last. The team had done a great job and Spurn looked fantastic. My moment on national TV was slightly surreally pishing into a heligoland trap...

One good bird...

A fun few days spent at YWT Spurn with the BBC Autumnwatch team. The obvious benefit of this was I got to spend a fair bit of time at Spurn, in peak season. Don't forget to watch - 8.30pm on BBC2 this Friday.
Here are the highlights:

6-7 October
Not much going on though 6 Barnacle Geese in from the north along with hundreds of Pinkfeet was nice. A Barn Owl was a Spurn tick for me, plus a couple of Bramblings.

9 October
Not sure what influence the weather had as the wind was still southwesterly, but the appearance of low cloud and occasional spots of rain really upped the migrant stakes, particularly in the afternoon, when hordes of Skylarks, Redwings and Song Thrushes, plus a few Blackies and Fieldfares came in off the sea. An Arctic Skua and Short-eared Owl also put in appearances at the Warren. Sadly, the Red-throated Pipit that flew over Chalk Bank late morning didn't stick. Disaster however struck when my scope blew over and broke the tripod fixing and damaged the zoom. Oops! Shortly my spirits were raised when the Obs trapped a stonking Hawfinch at Kew and I managed to scramble the BBC crew in time to film this monster. My second east coast Hawfinch in a week.

Better was to come though! Andy and me accompanied part of the team with Michaela Strachan to do a short piece of film near the lighthouse. We parked up and walked north to meet them.

As we walked through the marram, a bird got up almost at our feet. It called once explosively "pseee"- I shouted "Red-throated Pipit!" and to my relief, Andy immediately agreed. The bird looped round showing white, boldly striped underparts, and then landed on the ridge next to the road. Andy put the news out on the radio, but got no response. Surely somebody was still on channel?!

Michaela came over and was keen to see the bird, so we walked down the road to where it landed. I set my camcorder running just in case and walked towards where we thought it had dropped. Sure enough, the bird took flight again at close quarters, called once and headed south towards the car park where it dropped again into the marram. Amazingly, I managed to capture the bird on film and even better, you can hear the call!

Shortly, a convoy of cars screeched up unloading many of the Spurn locals, to my relief. After a little walk the bird showed again in flight, this time calling several times, before returning to it's original location. This was a Yorkshire tick for me and even a Spurn tick for some of the gathered birders, so all went away happy.

And here is the video - look and listen carefully. The wind noise makes the call a little harsher than it sounded in reality, but you can just about make it out.

10 October

Not much of note!

Lastly thanks to Andy and Reenie for putting me up, and to all the Spurn guys, especially Ian, Paul, Adam, and Andy et al for all their hospitality.

East Coast Weekender #5: Birthday boy

Up and at 'em early - it was my birthday - and was soon enjoying a beer on Chalk Bank for breakfast. Following this, the sky filled with Wheatears, as a fall happened. We counted over 50 around Chalk Bank, including 14 sitting on one patch of rocks on the beach and six in a line on the telegraph wires. Crazy!

We then went to Sammy's Point where yet more Wheatears greeted us, with at least 32 in the horse paddock and 12 in the adjacent field. I checked every one, but sadly the Black-eared wasn't playing ball.

After a snack, we popped into Canal Scrape, which lasted literally two seconds as the radio crackled 'Whiskered Tern off the Narrows'. Yikes! We scrambled into the car and shot down there. I was soon on the Little Gull flock and picked up a Black Tern. Reg then had a look through the scope, and we both decided we couldn't see the bird so headed up the track to see if the others were on it. After a bit of confusion it turned out the 'black tern' was the reported Whiskered. The views were not great against the bright sky, but the bird looked all dark, with white ffrom the throat down the belly and round it's neck. This didn't look like a Whiskered, but also looked wierd for Black Tern. Then Adam Hutt cleared it up stating 'it's an American Black Tern!' Soon an Arctic Skua barrelled in flushing the flock high into the sky. Although they returned, the tern never came as close, being very distant, so I couldn't get any more on it.

This was quite a surreal end to a fantastic four day weekend. The Sandhill Crane never did fly on to my list, but great birding in great places with great company more than made up for it. Thanks to Richard at Flamborough and Andy/Adam at Spurn for sorting us radios and Kat and Craig for putting us up/up with us!
And a good bird finally came my way...

East Coast Weekender #4: Spurn

After an awesome time at Flamborough, where else could come up to the mark? Spurn, of course. We headed south, taking in the delights of Hornsea Mere, where we failed to connect with the lingering Pec Sand, making do with a sprightly Common Sand with surprisingly yellow legs...

Arriving at Spurn was something of a culture shock. Birders were everywhere, along with cars, radios and sea buckthorn. Had a mooch round Chalk Bank away from the crowds, but failed to see anything other than three confiding Bramblings. The news was that the Spurn Pallid Swift had been trashed on photo analysis. So how soon til the same happened to our bird? Surely not!

A recovering Reg and me smelt pie on the breeze, so soon found ourselves in the Crown and Anchor for tea. A few pints later and back to the obs for sleep, or in my case lying on my back in a smelly dorm listening to competitive snoring.

East Coast Weekender #3: Eyes on the Skies for the Prize!

Dawn came round too quickly and I found myself pointing and muttering 'Hawfinch' to anyone listening. An excited Craig Thomas saying 'where, where?' woke me up and we soon enjoyed cracking views of the brute sitting atop the Old Fall hedgerow. A fine start!

Migrants were much in evidence, with four then two Crossbills flying west overhead amid the cacophony of Siskins and Redpolls. Chiffchaffs flitted ahead of us along the hedge and Redstarts scolded our progress. The Yellow-browed Warbler gave itself up more quickly, this time on the northside of the plantation and showing for several minutes. A smart, if dull bird, with little tertial edging, but a couple of fine wingbars and a whopping supercilium. On round the head revealed a Whinchat and a Wheatear perched in the so-called motorway hedge. Then unforgettably, Craig said 'get on this swift'. I lifted my bins to see two swifts coming across the field in front of us sunlit against a dark sky. The first, remarkably was sandy brown, with two tone wings, a dark saddle and huge white throat patch. Blimey! I said 'this has got to be a Pallid!' Reg came running back saying 'that's a Pallid Swift'. So we were all in agreement. The pair came past at close range, fairly leisurely, allowing us to check the features off one by one, with the added bonus of a Common Swift close by for comparison. After a minute or so, they headed off high into the bright sky over Bridlington Bay, leaving us shocked and elated.

After a brief conflab, Craig tried to hail the others on the CB, but this didn't work, so he legged it over to the fog horn station to alert the seawatchers. On his way to the head, he bumped into Ashley Saunders who apparently had independently seen the bird and agreed with the identification. Fortunately, the two swifts reappeared in front of the swelling throng and performed well for the next hour before being lost to view at 11am, during which time I managed a little bit of poor video. Meanwhile, news came through that another Pallid Swift was at Spurn...

Craig had to dash off to chair a meeting - unfortunate timing. Reg and me celebrated with a cup of tea and then decided to do Holme's Gut. Even more birds than yesterday for sure, but still no rare.

It was time to head for Spurn...

East Coast Weekender #2: Reg got leathered

No sooner had I been dropped off in York, than Kat was picking me up to take me back out there. This time to Muston, where we had a fine curry with friends. Reg had arrived 15 minutes early and had sunk three pints of strong cider on an empty stomach. Sadly, his fine curry was enjoyed more than once, much to the surprise of our hostess. Reg decided air was called for, only to be returned by the neighbourhood watch 20 minutes later, having been found lying in an alley. This maybe the most exciting thing to happen in Muston in ten years. Unfortunately for Reg, he had done his shoulder in whilst falling over, limiting his bins wielding activity for the rest of the weekend.

On to Filey Dams, a YWT reserve which had changed a lot in the last 15 years, where a Bar-wit (good record?) and a couple of Ruff, sadly were not hanging out with a Solitary Sand today.

Flamborough beckoned and we were soon enjoying the cover in Old Fall, where the Yellow-browed Warbler still evaded us. A Pied Flycatcher and Redstart encouraged us to linger, and shortly the Phyllosc started calling like a mad man, allowing us to finally locate it in the southern willows. Smart. Interestingly, this bird would intersperse it's usual call with occasional monosyllables, which heard alone could have been confusing.

At lunchtime, Redwings started to drop in out of the sky; wierd on such a fine day. It is exhillarating to see these flocks come in off the sea and pitch up in a hedge. You can almost feel their relief and joy at having survived crossing the North Sea non-stop and being greeted by fine weather and berry-stuffed hedges. Great! A Pied Fly was new in by the lighthouse too:

We hooked up with Craig Thomas and headed round the northside. Whinchat and Wheatear near Thornwick, plus a plethora of Redwings and Song Thrushes in Holme's Gut suggested better was to come, despite the heat. And it was; the Rose and Crown, for fine ales and chats.

East Coast Weekender #1: Wild crane chase

Friday 30 September 2011:
Like many birders, I took an emergency day off with the prospect of a migrating Sandhill Crane following the Yorkshire coast. Sadly, the crane took exception to the vampire activity in Whitby, and flew west in a hurry, to escape the wierd goth types. The bird then flew straight over the cracking new YWT hide at North Cave Wetlands*, over the whale-fest that is the Humber, straight round Lincolnshire, across Dudesville, sorry, Norfolk and into Suffolk, where it decided to ditch (*probably). Anyhoo, had a lovely morning with Birding Dad Senior, dipping Craig Thomas's Old Fall Yellow-brow, but pulling out a Redstart instead. The weather was burgeoning on tropical, the scenery of the Great White Cape stunning and the company great. A sprinkling of migrants around, notably six Lapland Bunts at North Marsh and one at Old Fall.

The Great White Cape