Boat trip Casps - Sep '25

A couple of sharp and stylish Caspian Gulls from recent boat trips, just because, well, they're sharp and stylish....

Road to nowhere - Skipsea, 17th Sep '25

After overnighting at Flamborough, an afternoon and evening surveying on the Humber yesterday; with an hour or so to kill on the way down the coast, I approached the road which falls straight into the sea just beyond the Skipsea village - ideal. With a strong south-westerly and a swirling cloud fronts, I expected little, but parked up by the sheer drop and took a lunch break.

Little Gull (above), Osprey (below)

Just over an hour or so later, and I'd an Osprey in off the sea and south-west, several Little Gulls and Arctic Skuas, a trickle of Swifts in off and over the sea, Arctic, Common and Sandwich Terns, Red-throated Divers, dark-bellied Brent Geese and more, mostly moving south into the wind; one of those fruitful bonus sessions that happily occur once in a while, reminding you that migration is marching on regardless of the conditions.

Common Tern

Gannet and Arctic Skua (above), dark-bellied Brent Geese (below)

Osprey, Swift, Little Gull

The first fall of the autumn - Filey, 7th Sep '25

Better make it quick as I'm up in a few hours for a day on the boat (hopefully more of that to come), but for now, a few photos from today, the first reall fall of passerines this autumn.

Strong south-easterlies at this time of year is always worth a shot, and after work on the Humber early on, a late morning arrival in Filey was immediately productive....

I parked the car in the sheltered bowl of the Top Scrub, got out my lunch and a cup of tea, and instantly had four Pied Flycatchers buzzing around me, calling and chasing each other. Lunch was soon dispatched and a thorough patrolling of the Northern Coastal Area (lots of time in the Top Scrub, plus Long Lane, Long Hedge, Rocket Pole Field etc) produced a minimum of 15 Pied Flys:

Five Whinchats well scattered was an impressive count by recent standards, remarkably up-ended with a scan along the sheltered fenceline bordering the Rocket Pole field and Top Scrub revealing no fewer than 12 (!), in a genuine flock, which soon dissipated after a few minutes:

Other migrants in the area included eight Willow Warblers, 10 Chiffchaffs, two Spotted Flycatchers (above and below), three Common Whitethroats, one Lesser Whitethroat, one Garden Warbler, two Blackcaps and a Siskin.

with a heavy shower approaching, I stuck it out and banked on Carr Naze - well worth a bit of a soaking, with another four Whinchats (totalling 21), another two Pied Flys (totalling 17), three Wheatears, another two Redstarts (totalling seven) and another two Willow Warblers.

Classic Carr Naze in the rain - a Pied Fly freshly arrived and hiding in the Magic Bush (above), and a male Redstart in-off and onto the clifftop (below)

A hugely enjoyable six hours, and while there was no scarcity this time, there was more than enough to revel in....

Filey Brigg, 4th Sep '25

Common Tern - one of many hundreds 

As described in the last post, it was quite the show on and off the Brigg, and while the Roseates arguably took top spot, various other species made it a multi-faceted treat; in truth, just the Gannets alone would've sufficed, being so close, so numerous and so dramatic.

Two Black Terns - a rare bird locally, and only really possible on patient seawatches or (if you're lucky) within tern congregations at this time of year - were as much of a joy:

(spot the juvenile Roseate above the Black)

Gannet

This immaculate juvenile European Golden Plover was extremely tame, trotting around the rockpools a few metres away for much of the time:

A few Grey Herons were likewise patrolling the rockpools

An even more tame juvenile Dunlin, completely fearless, as young waders so often are here at this time of year - very likely its first sighting of a biped...

Common Terns

Adult Roseate (left) with Common Terns

Filey Brigg, 4th Sep '25 - Roseate Terns

Adult (above) and juvenile (below) Roseate Terns

So with a little spare time and an opportunity to see the folks, I headed for the coast on Wednesday (3rd), calling at Filey for a check of the bay and Brigg on the way to overnighting at Flamborough....

... which turned out to be a good call, as the photos above and below demonstrate (to a degree anyway - the photos show only a small percentage of the birds involved). All inshore waters to the south, north and east of the Brigg were a blur of many thousands of feeding seabirds, while the Brigg itself was covered with resting flocks.

Thousands of Gannets, auks, Kittiwakes and other gulls, terns and more in pretty much all directions and at all distances, with many close inshore, and a great any more off in the distance. Hard to know where to look, and unfortunately, hard to pick anything out, with a blustery wind, dying light and squally showers. 

All pics - Roseate Terns

Frustrating, but with a few hours spare the following morning, I resolved to come back and give it some serious coverage. More settled conditions and sunshine greeted me when I did, with the latter meaning the glare dictated getting on the seaward side of the birds.

Thankfully, it was one of those days when there were so many birds, which were so committed to making the most of the bounty, that getting to the very end of the Brigg and looking back wasn't a problem; any minor inconvenience to the resting masses was soon forgotten and positions were immediately resumed.

And there was a lot to enjoy and sift through. The aforementioned thousands of Gannets - many diving just a few metres from the shore - were joined by ten Arctic Skuas, many hundreds of Kittiwakes and other commoner gulls, a good scattering of waders on the Brigg (see next post), ten Arctic Skuas (with two Poms the evening previously), a smattering of Red-throated Divers, three Caspian Gulls, a Yellow-legged Gull, and 500 or so Common Terns dominating the rocks (and the inshore feeding grounds), along with four other tern species...

... the final tallies of which consisted of 55 Sandwich Terns, three Arctic Terns, two Black Terns and these highly entertaining Roseate Terns, totalling four (two adults and two juveniles).

I was fortunate to enjoy them, and the rest of the avian spectacle, undisturbed, for a couple of very immersive and much appreciated hours - see the next post for a variety of other species - but there was one aspect to their behaviour which I didn't expect. All the following photos show an adult Roseate Tern engaged in kleptoparasitism:

This occurred at least three times while I was there (and that could easily have been plenty more), always involving adult Common Terns with (large) fish as targets, and always involving a specific style of attack:

The Roseate would gain height, approach from above at a sharp diagonal, half closing its wings until almost within touching range of the target, and then drop its feet and attack with its bill. On at least one of the occasions, it succeeded, and after collecting its booty, it returned to the rocks and fed it to its youngster.

Its not a behaviour I was aware of for this species (adding further to the general spectacle), but a bit of research shows its actually not hugely unusual, at least at breeding colonies.

More to follow....