I finally had the opportunity to get down onto the Brigg here at Filey yesterday afternoon, but with a blustery (and unseasonably warm) south-westerly wind, I'd zero expectations of action over the sea. Still, after a while I picked up a dark dot, miles out in the haze, due east of me - i.e., way, way out to sea, next stop Denmark - and watched it as it battled low over the waves, straight into the headwind.
My first thought was skua - possibly Long-tailed, which can recall a falcon in certain flight modes - but as the bird got closer it became more and more obvious that it was a falcon, and then (despite vain hopes for something a bit more spicy) clearly just a (Common / Eurasian) Kestrel.
Just a Kestrel... I followed it in the 'scope (yes, the new Harpia 95 is absolutely killing it for seawatching) as it approached, heading into the bay to the south of the Brigg, and with Bempton and Buckton Cliffs as a backdrop - and then as it banked towards me and headed for the nearest dry land of the Brigg and Carr Naze, looking me straight in the eye as it passed. (I may or may not have said hello and welcome at this point).
It must've taken at least ten minutes to transform from a dot over the waves to dot over the safety of terra firma, much of which it spent flapping furiously into a fierce south-westerly, and yet it made the journey with plenty to spare, whipping inland as if it'd been here all the time (which, if you'd have been stood up on the country park, would've been the logical assumption).
The Migration Atlas provides lots of valuable insight into the continental immigration of Kestrels into the UK in autumn - 'Unlike most broad-winged raptors, Kestrels can migrate long distances over water, and they regularly cross the North Sea' - and not only are they more than capable of long sea crossings, northern populations (from e.g. Scandinavia) winter as far south as Ghana! Who knows where this little bullet was eventually bound for, and who knows how much further it's battled today....
Regular readers of these pages will know that I never, ever tire of the wonder of migrants arriving in off the sea, and this bird absolutely lit up what was an otherwise dull seawatch, providing another unique experience that I won't forget in a hurry.
Just a Kestrel? I don't think so.
