Filey, 29th & 31st October '26

In the spirit of trying to be more comprehensive on these here pages (especially during migration periods), here's the first of a run of posts from coastal birding exploits during the late October / early November window - kicking off with two recent sessions at Filey.

A solid four hours plus on the morning of the 29th before plans back in York were sunny and clear, and steady at best as a consequence - small numbers of thrushes, finches, buntings, good numbers of Skylarks, plus a scattering of Robins and Chiffs in the bushes; large, vocal flocks of Pink-footed Geese (totalling 360, above) and a substantial, noisy flock of Whooper Swans early on (below) were a joy....

.... as were at least 15 Twite - two on Carr Naze, ten south, and then three absurdly tame birds which warrant their own post (to be uploaded shortly). Another few hours sneaked in before commitments on 31st were of a similar ilk, although more Redwings, Starlings, Meadow Pipits, Blackbirds and Skylarks were incoming, 14 Grey Partridges were in the Rocket Pole Field, and a flock of ten Long-tailed Tits flew high out to sea....

... before eventually thinking better of it and u-turning back onto Carr Naze.

As November beckoned, as did genuine time off and northerlies swinging into easterlies - but would they provide? Stay tuned....

Below - Blackcap in Top Scrub, Grey Partridges in the Rocket Pole Field

Spurn, 19th - 23rd October '26

Continental Robin, Bluethroat and Chiffchaff feeding together in the same small ditch - classic Spurn! Click on images to enlarge 

(For places on my upcoming Spurn Migration Specials, please see HERE) 

Another manic, entertaining, bird- and memory-filled week guiding at Spurn - my third week there this year (a poor showing - back up to the usual five next year!) - just as the prevailing blustery south-westerlies call a unceremonious halt to the circus of migration we've enjoyed on the Yorkshire coast in recent days.

Short-eared Owl - one of many during the week, most of which arrived in off the sea 

So, you could say the timing of my week there (pre-booked well over a year ago) was impeccable, just like my week there in September; crappy low pressures and south-westerlies before and after, but a dominant easterly airflow for me and my clients (a different team every day, many of whom travelled from far and wide especially for their day with me - no pressure then....).

Wonderfully tame male Snow Bunting at the Warren

Setting off from York in the dark on the early morning of the 19th, the day held much promise, with the wind suddenly but firmly in the eastern half of the compass, where it remain for much of the week; arriving in Kilnsea as dawn broke, there were already very positive signs, as Redwings tsseeeped overhead and Blackbirds bounded along hedgerows in loose, unruly gangs.

Dark-bellied Brent Geese at the breach

It was a day - and a week - of arrivals, in terms of abundance, variety, and quality, of species that you'd hope for on the east coast at this time of year, if the winds are favourable. On that first day, Redwings, Song Thrushes and (especially) Blackbirds arrived in their droves, Tomato-soupy Robins were absolutely everywhere, Russian White-fronted Geese were on the move (and seen every day), Chiffs, Blackcaps, 'crests and other hardy little passerines occupied cover....

Stoat at the Warren

.. while above us, visible migration was often impressive; as well as the thrushes, Skylarks, Bramblings, Siskins, Redpolls, Goldfinches, Meadow Pipits, Reed Buntings, multitudes of Starlings and much more, the incomparable sight of Short-eared Owls arriving in off the sea was a memorable feature of several days (and kickstarted the week's guiding literally as I was gathering the team on the first morning at the Bluebell car park).

 

Woodcocks - a genuine rival to the owls in terms of iconic incomers over the waves - were also a memorable feature of most days, with birds either careening in over the waves or exploding out of cover on many occasions.

One of god knows how many European Robins seen and heard through the week - most were classic tomato-soupy continental birds 

Each day was of course different, in every sense - conditions, species dynamics and abundance, people on the team (six different intrepid souls awaiting their fate every morning) - which not only makes every one of my Spurn Migration Specials unique, it also keeps it more than interesting for me. Reading the weather, and the room, keeps me on alert and hopefully at the top of my guiding game.

Caught in the middle of my Here's-why-Spurn-is-so-great-for-migration sand art lecture on the beach (thanks Penny!) 

Keener birders will know there were plenty of rarities and scarcities in the area, and along the coast, throughout the week. Did we chase after them? Of course not! (Well, with one honourable exception - see below). While I fully understand the attraction - and indeed why other groups, with different priorities, would choose to do so - it's generally not for me, and more pertinently, it's generally not what makes my YCN days special for the teams involved.

We welcome a pleasingly broad spectrum of birders - from absolute beginners to seasoned pros, and everywhere in between - and my focus for my groups is on making the day as much of a holistic adventure in the joys of bird migration as I possibly can. This can, and does, involve finding and/or enjoying rarer and scarcer birds, of course; but only if they fit into the jigsaw of a rich and varied day in the field.

Have some more Bluethroat

My emphasis is (and always will be) on delivering as many flavours of the magic of bird migration as I can, without dragging my teams around all over the shop; indeed, my Spurn Specials, like most of my other YCN Birding Discovery Days, are entirely on foot. We meet at the Bluebell carpark on the very edge of the coastline (convenient not only as a meeting place and base, but also for the aformentioned arriving owls, Woodcocks and more), and from there, it's a bespoke day of various hotspots, habitats, places and birds.

We have a great relationship with the good people of Spurn Bird Observatory (and donate a percentage of our Spurn guiding takings to the Obs every year), which also means we have free access to all the best, hidden corners of the area, as well as the privilege of enjoying the ringing at several spots. Paul, Rob and a whole host of helpful locals (you know who you are!) contribute greatly to the enjoyment and wonder experienced by my teams, and i'm very grateful to all of you for your always warm welcome and sharing your knowledge and passion!

Snow Bunting

So, back to the birding. As mentioned, each day is different - and it's a testement to how wonderful the landbird migration was throughout the week that, for the first time ever (and that's a lot of Spurn guiding weeks), I didn't even make it to the wetlands...! The Kilnsea area was more than enough, with various combinations of all the hotspots in the Triangle, as well as the coastal stretch, the Warren, the peninsula, the Obs and of course the mighty Humber estuary occupying our days.

Shortie

As well as the glorious spectrum of commoner migratory species enjoyed, we also bumped into plenty of scarcities: Siberian Chiffchaff, Barred, Dusky and Yellow-browed Warblers spring to mind, and less common treats included Long-eared Owl, Snow Buntings, White-fronted and Tundra Bean Geese, Ring Ouzel, Jack Snipe and more. For many, though, the bird of the week was a fabulous Bluethroat in Corner Field, which we found on the afternoon of day one - and which happily stayed for several days, entertaining four of my groups (and apparently hundreds of others!) throughout the week.

Speaking of jazzy little chats with fancy gullets, we did make an exception on day four... as news came through on the radio of a certain Ruby-throated banger more than halfway down the peninsula, I contextualised the situation, and circumstances, to my hastily assembled team for the day. Unusually - the normal approach being that of a benevolant dictatorship (!) - I offered all alternatives, and put it to the vote. Everybody was up for it, and so off we marched, down the beach and through the dunes....

No Siberian jewel for us (nor for all the other hopefuls who made the effort!), but it mattered not; we had a glorious few hours of big, bird-filled Spurn skies, loads of highlights (three Short-eared Owls in off the sea, a point-blank White-fronted Goose, droves of finches and thrushes gunning down the peninsula, Goldcrests and Robins practically on our shoes, etc). And that, in a nutshell, is why I think all my days at Spurn are special - all unique, and all magical.

And this is all against the hypnotising, beautiful backdrop of the swirling masses of waders on the Humber - Golden Plovers, Knot, Grey Plovers, Dunlins, Ringed Plovers, Black- and Bar-tailed Godwits, Curlews, Redshanks, Oystercatchers and more in their mesmerising multitudes; which anywhere else would be enough on their own.

   

Ok, so I might've made a three-minute detour on the way home to see this beautiful beast.....) 

Thank you Spurn (and your good people and great birds!) - see you in the spring.

Asio like it - Filey, 18th October '26

Dawn from the end of Carr Naze 

I'll try and cut straight to it (got to pack, then up at an ungodly hour to drive to Spurn, and guiding there all week)... so, the forecast for today looked very promising, with a northerly / north-north-easterly airflow and a high pressure more than clipping Scandinavia as the day progressed; otherwise windy, showery with sunny intervals. Mid-October? Game on (hopefully).....

LEO! 

I drove to the coast in the dark and made it to Filey well before dawn, with enough light to make out if there'd been a major arrival or not; anticlimactically, there hadn't, but for good numbers of Blackbirds on the edge of the Top Scrub. Carr Naze was bereft of landbirds but for a few hardy Meadow Pipits, but I slowly checked all possible nooks and crannies just in case.

Two Mealy Redpolls dropped in by the pond (but not long enough to pose for pics), four Twite arrived later, Starlings were arriving in flocks, a few Bramblings, Chaffinches and Skylarks were doing likewise; just a trickle at best, however, and not a thrush in sight....

Never mind - the sea looked instantly busy, with flocks of ducks on the move, streams of Kittiwakes and plenty more out there; but for a break for lunch and to check the bushes after several hours, pretty much the whole day was taken up with the action over the waves. The first of no fewer than four Short-eared Owls arrived in off the sea soon after, and it's always such a thrill to watch them battling in from hours navigating over the ocean.

Next up, a dark, lolloping shape low over the water and struggling towards the tip of Carr Naze - a Long-eared Owl - its first sight of land this side of the North Sea, and exactly where I was positioned. Closer it came, a picture of determination against a wind trying to drive it further south, and we locked eyes for a good few seconds as it approached, spiralled over the edge of the cliffs, and made its way silently inland. What a bird, and what a joy to witness its successful arrival.

Short-eared Owl, arriving from a long way out... The hours flew by, and the highlights were many - Sabine's Gull, Little Auk, two each of Pomarine and Long-tailed Skuas, Black-throated Diver, lots of Little Gulls, excellent wildfowl passage and more - but despite the high quality seabird action, ultimately, the owls stole the show.

More of the Long-eared Owl

Eiders heading north

School of Birding Deep Dive Specials - September '26

Rewinding back to mid-September, and it was time to head back up to the Highlands for another School of Birding - our twelfth! - and this time it was a little different: it was all about focusing on raptors and seabirds, for our first Double Deep-Dive Special.

Thanks to John, Penny, Simon, Sarah, Sally and the team for photos! 

Based as ever at the fantastic Grant Arms Hotel, Simon and I were excited to deliver this new edition to the School's module choices, and we welcomed back some of our absolute favourite clients / repeat offenders to share the new material.

We timed these Deep Dives for September in order to try and maximise time in the field with each of the species groups - resident raptors would theoretically be easy-ish to find with ok weather, and migratory birds of prey should hopefully also be up and at 'em. Seabirds, meanwhile, should also be very much on the move, with a suite of guaranteed species to enjoy on the coast and, hopefully, a trip out onto the waves for more....

Close-in Bonxie at Burghead

In a nutshell, it could hardly have gone better. Everybody was wonderfully engaged and enthusiastic, with the whole team finding birds and sharing the spoils, and my co-pilot Simon absolutely smashing it with his raptor radar and unrivalled, intimate local knowledge. (I've been doing this for many years, and I'm still learning from him - there's no-one better.)

Raptors? Well, as well as the interactive ID sessions at the hotel, in the field we had eleven target species; realistically, then, nine or ten would be a more than decent return. In the event, we not only nailed all eleven, but had great, prolonged, brilliantly educational views of pretty much all of them - more than we could've dreamed of.

Sooty Shearwaters in the Minch

The roll-call was: Merlin, Kestrel, Peregrine, Sparrowhawk, Goshawk, Common Buzzard, Osprey, Hen Harrier, Red Kite, Golden Eagle and White-tailed Eagle; the experiences were, as mentioned, just perfect from a learning perspective, with some absurdly close entounters with some of the rarer members of the list. An unqualified success! 

 

Great Shearwater from the ferry

Seabirds? Well, arguably a little more in the hands of the gods, and indeed the conditions - for the coast, anything but heavy rain would be fine, but for the prospective sea crossing, we needed it calm enough to be worthwhile (i.e. not rough as hell). Our 'pelagic' for these purposes involved a very big boat indeed - the CalMac ferry from Ullapool to Stornoway and back again - which, if it happened, would constitute five hours of seawatching across the Minch and back.

Watching eagles at Spey Dam

As it happened, a day in the middle of the week looked ideal, and so off we drove, through some of the most stunning landscapes in the UK, to the ferry terminal. The conditions were, as forecast, good - the winds were light to moderate, the sky was cloudy (much better than sunshine, which creates too much contrast for observing the birds), and we were feeling quietly confident.

Hen Harrier

Long story short, the mighty Minch delivered, and then some. Our entire team were very much on board, in more ways than one - calling out interesting birds on and over the sea, asking for advice re: ID and flight styles of the birds in question, etc. - and everyone began to develop their seawatching skills in a whole range of ways.

Highlights were many, but of those that spring to mind, Great Shearwater, Leach's Storm-petrel, Pomarine Skua, swirling flocks of Sooty Shearwaters, European Storm-petrel, lots of Bonxies, Arctic Skuas and Manx Shearwaters, pods of Common Dolphins, Bottlenose Dolphins and a Minke Whale are among them....

A memorable day, capped by delivering a talk at the hotel late on (thanks for staying awake, team!).

Proof of arrival in the Outer Hebs - 15 minutes in Stornoway before the return journey!

Over the course of our six full days in the field, we covered many sites in pursuit of our targets, from glens, marshes, rocky coast, the open sea, mountain sides, forest, farmland and more. For such an incredible variety of habitats in such a small area, it's almost unrivalled.

Putative 'Viking Gull' (Glaucous x Herring) at Ullapool harbour

The classroom sessions were, as ever, really fulfilling to deliver and lots of fun (with everyone working together as always) - and being able to teach / learn things indoors and outdoors, in quick succession, is a real strength of our format.

Common Dolphin having fun

So, were the Deep Dives a success? For sure. Will we be doing them again? For sure! But in the meantime, we've a whole host of Schools to deliver over the coming year or more.... April, May, and June are already fully booked, but we have a couple of places left this February (a module one, and a great time for birding up there!): contact us HERE if you want to join the fun.

Goosanders (including a bird with partial leucism above, Bar-tailed Godwits and Bonxies below