It's a rare thing to have snow here at Filey these days, and so when it comes, ideally you make the most of it; fortunately, today's fieldwork was sensibly postponed, and so plan B it was pretty much all day birding. Over five hours and 10 kilometres later, and some primetime mid-winter birding had been very much appreciated.
Snow flurries continued for the first hour or so, and temperatures remained well below zero throughout, with a biting NW wind; from late morning, however, the sun shone and the wind dropped a little, and conditions were even better than earlier. From home, I covered Church Ravine, the Country Park, Carr Naze, Top Scrub, the Top Fields, Long Lane and back, and cold weather movements were evident throughout.
After slipping on snow-covered ice and landing on my camera (thankfully just a smashed filter and a bit of slapstick to show for it), it got plenty of use - hence dividing the session into two posts: for this one I'll stick to passerines (but see the next one for plenty more). Of the former, there was some incoming and southbound movements and a bounty to enjoy in the Tope Fields / Northern stubbles:
168 Skylarks (124 in off, mostly in a couple of large flocks, and 64 Top Fields), lots of Redwings, Blackbirds and a few Fieldfares, plenty of Robins in the scrub, plus Brambling and Siskin in off - but, as has been the case several times lately, it was the buntings that stole the show.
Lapland Buntings were well represented, with two on Carr Naze, one in off, and (at least) eight with the feeding flocks in the fields; once again, there could be more scattered across the fields, but at least they played ball much better this time by actively mingling with the Snow Buntings (of which there were at least 56 - 38 in the fields and 18 south first thing). There were also lots of Reed Buntings and Yellowhammers, and all species were often side by side.
More to follow in the next post.
