Yesterday was the first of a series of my
Winter Birding Days here on the Yorkshire coast through December and January, and it was fine way to begin. With temperatures having plunged of late, but conditions otherwise on our side, I met my lovely team of clients (all welcome returnees) here at Filey, where we spent the first and main part of the day.
The beach, the bay and the bay corner were our first ports of call, and produced a close-in
Great Northern Diver, Great Crested Grebe, auks and
Red-throated Divers on the sea,
Sanderlings, Purple Sandpipers, Turnstones and
Redshanks close-up on the shore, and
Stonechats, Rock Pipits and other passerines in the shelter of the bay corner.
It was while watching the latter that we enjoyed one of the stand-out highlights of the day - a
Woodcock straight in off the sea, along the flank of Carr Naze, straight past us and up into the Country Park; perfect views of an incoming migrant that happened to arrive at the perfect time, from Scandinavia or perhaps Russia. Magical.
Our next session was up on Carr Naze, looking down into the bay, along the Brigg and up along the North Cliff. Lots on offer with a bit of patience, including a minimum of three
Great Northern Divers, a male
Goldeneye, Common Scoters, more
Purple Sandpipers, Curlew, Shags, Teal, Wigeon, more
Red-throated Divers and, happily, three
Little Auks feeding off the Brigg end - a lifer for two of our party and a fine reward for sticking it out in the cold.
After lunch, we finished the day at a wonderfully quiet Bempton Cliffs, where (as a bonus) there happened to be lots of seabirds on and off the ledges - multitudes of
Guillemots, Razorbills and
Fulmars, wirth plenty of
Gannets and
gulls kicking around, more
Teal, a female
Goosander, and the star of the session - a super-tame
Snow Bunting on the path just beyond Staple Newk.
As the light faded and the temperatures dipped further, a last wander round the reserve produced lots of hardy passerines dropping it to roost, including lots of finches and buntings, with half a dozen tame
Corn Buntings showing off nicely and book-ending a lovely day with lovely folk.
December's trips are booked up, but there's still places left in January - see
*here*.
