Tracking down migrant passerines is particularly difficult here in Filey presently, with the double whammy of peak tourist season (busier than I've ever seen it here due to this year's unprecedented circumstances, with all the main migrant traps overrun with noise and disturbance) and the lack of access to the other main passerine hotspots (fenced off due to flood alleviation works). So expectations are lower than usual this season....
... which means enjoying whatever is on offer that little bit more, and at least the recent influx of Pied Flys has provided some classic early autumn drift migration. A regular migrant in variable numbers, some years they can be very scarce, but when the right conditions conspire (at the right time of year) to drift them across the North Sea on their way south, then we usually get a few at least.
... which means enjoying whatever is on offer that little bit more, and at least the recent influx of Pied Flys has provided some classic early autumn drift migration. A regular migrant in variable numbers, some years they can be very scarce, but when the right conditions conspire (at the right time of year) to drift them across the North Sea on their way south, then we usually get a few at least.
And like many of the best East coast migration spectacles, fog, easterlies and a clifftop made these two birds even more special, appearing as they did - thanks to a combination of the former two - on the latter, out of nowhere and right in front of me. Magic.
