Common Crane in off the sea at Muston Sands, Filey - 22nd April
This post covers April, May, June and July 2023 - for January to March, see here.
Back from the warm sunshine and and free-flowing migration of Israel to the bone-chilling northerlies and barely stuttering early spring migration of the Yorkshire coast... still, plenty of time for local birding and plenty of work-related birding opportunities, and after a typically slow start, spring picked up pace on the land, on sea, via visible migration (vismig) and also nocturnal migration (nocmig).
Adder, Ravenscar, April
Vismig was particularly enjoyable, with a couple of notable scarcities (Woodlark, Crane) among the varied and welcome fayre of returning northbound visitors, while nocmig was as entertaining and educational as ever, and also included notable scarcities, including Bitterns and a Quail over my Flamborough recorder (see
here for the Filey spring summary, and here for the
Flamborough spring summary).
Stonechat, Carr Naze, Filey - a pair successfully bred here again last summer
General migration picked up as
April wore on in good time for a typically busy
May and
June - lots of local guiding and surveying, and off-the-clock birding inbetween. Guiding in May consisted of a series of my
Birding Discovery Days at
Flamborough and also over the course of a week late in the month at
Spurn - both a serious pleasure to deliver, as always - plus a 'Best of Yorkshire' residential group trip and
new evening sessions enjoying the breeding seabirds at Flamborough....
Fin Whale, sadly washed up on Bridlington beach in early May
... while surveying included two working week-long, very enjoyable combined wader / Breeding Bird Surveys in the wilds of Northumberland, a small wader project in the North York Moors and various ongoing surveys on the Humber as per usual.
Grasshopper Warbler, Northumberland, June
The first week of July saw the Mrs, the old man and I enjoying a lovely, relaxing week on
Mull - amazingly, the first time I've been to this beautiful inner Hebridean island, but surely not the last. A stunning place aesthetically, surprisingly rich and varied from a habitats perspective, and lots of fun to be away in such good company.
For three days in mid-July, it was great to back at Birdfair - primarily representing Yorkshire Coast Nature, and also there to rep Zeiss Birding, the School of Birding (more on that to follow) and to do a few public events and the like, inclding a
really fun podcast with the lovely Hannah and Erik.
As July ended, so autumn migration and the pelagic season began, and a memorable trip abroad beckoned - more of all that in the next post.
