Migration on the North-east Coast

I recently visited the North-east coast to observe the superb migration which occurs during Autumn. The ideal weather conditions would have been overcast, with northerly or easterly winds but instead it was a week of no wind, bright sunshine with barely a cloud in the sky! As a result, migrants were thin on the ground. 

The first location was Flamborough Head, a famed sea-watching  headland and migrant trap. The star find of the few days was this Pied Flycatcher, freshly arrived in off the sea, seen between Thornwick Bay and Bempton Cliffs on the outer head, feeding amongst some vegetation on the cliff-top path. 

It will have fledged in Scandinavia and moulted its body feathers soon after (not wing or tail feathers though). The tertials (the 3 most upper wing feathers) have quite a large white edge, aging this bird to being a 1st-winter.

Over the course of my stay at Flamborough I found three Wheatears, all feeding in stubble fields next to the cliff tops. After travelling over 1000 miles, they probably didn't want to move too far to feed! 

This one is also a 1st-winter bird; you can tell this by it's moult pattern in the median coverts; every bird has a different moult pattern.

If you don't know where the median coverts are, here's an opportunity to do some research! 

An unexpected sight were these 7 Teal, coming in off the sea at South Landing. They will have probably come from either Northern Europe or Siberia and this will have been their first landfall since they headed onto the North Sea. 

Pretty amazing! 

And to finish off at Flamborough here's a picture of Bay Brambles, one of the top migrant spots on the headland.

Now I'm off to Spurn and Spurn Observatory Migration Festival.

Spurn Bird Observatory's recording area is renowned among birders for being one of the best places on Britain's mainland for seeing rare and scarce birds. This certainly rang true during my stay...

I had spent a lovely half hour wandering through Beacon Lane seeing 4 Lesser Whitethroat, Garden Warbler and a fly-over Hobby and was approaching Sandy Beaches, hoping to do a bit of sea-watching. I had just been talking to Mark Cocker, an author, naturalist and birder, who had walked further along the path. As I neared him again he shouted 'Great Shearwater!' I quickly dashed over and managed to get onto it as it loafed around with some gulls on the sea. It was present for around 30 minutes, which allowed other birders who had gathered to see it too. After feeding and preening, it U-turned back up North and out of sight.

Great Shearwater are scarce migrants off the coasts of Britain, breeding mainly on islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Post-breeding, they employ loop migration, taking in the South American, North American, Mediterranean and West African coasts, before looping back down south. 

The South-west of Britain gets the majority of records every year, so to see one  in the North Sea is really quite special; its only the 9th record ever for Spurn.

Spurn is one of the best places in Britain to see large numbers of Meadow Pipits and has the British record of the largest number of migrating 'Mipits' ever recorded of 20,200 birds. 

The conditions during my stay at Spurn weren't ideal for vismig (visible migration) but a few hundred Mipits were still seen, most having come from Scandinavia, some from Iceland or even Greenland. Their next stop - probably Iberia, but also possibly NW Africa, Biscay or maybe a costal marsh in Southern England. 

As a very keen visible migration watcher (vismigger) any Autumn vismig session isn't complete without the 'tseep' of a migrating Mipit!

During the course of Saturday at least 15 Mediterranean Gulls were circling over North Field with large flocks of Black-headed. There was obviously a large number of flying insects in the air that day, as they hung around for almost the whole morning. 

Med gulls can be told from the commoner Black-headed by being almost completely white all over, giving a very different appearance in flight. Their flight style is  also different being much more buoyant, a bit like an egret.

It was now Sunday and I fancied going down to the Warren for some seawatching and possibly vismigging. Just a few hours earlier, I was thinking to myself that as there were so many people at Migfest, finding my own rarity was highly unlikely.

As I passed Big Hedge, I came to an area of long grass, with the path around the side of it - just a few moments later, I flushed a crake or partridge of some kind from edge of the path, before it landed a short distance away. All the possibilities ran through my head; Pheasant? Definitely not. Grey or Red-legged Partridge? Nope. Then it most have been something more interesting. However, I decided it was probably just a Quail and left it at that. Just a few yards down the path though, I flushed it again! This time it wheeled around behind me, showing for a good 3 or 4 seconds! I was going to need some photos for id, so quickly took some shots; the rufous tones on its plumage were striking, and I was now convinced that I wasn't looking at a Quail.

Corncrake came into my head, but I ignored it, convincing myself that it couldn't have been. Luckily, another birder had just walked past, so I asked him what his opinion was. He agreed that the rufous plumage tones were very 'different' and also suggested Corncrake. As we looked at the photographs more, we both realized that the only real option was Corncrake. I quickly put the news out on Twitter and dashed up the short distance to the Warren Sea-watching Hut to tell the birders up there as well.

By now, a small crowd of 60 or so birders had gathered where I had last seen the bird. However, even after hours of waiting, it was never seen again.

After looking at my photos afterwards, it shows all the ID features of Corncrake, rufous plumage tones, pale bill, trailing legs and streaked back. It is quite a rare bird for Spurn; I believe only the 20th record.

It was probably a migrant from continental Europe, which had drifted over to Spurn from its normal migration route, heading down to Africa to spend the Winter.

I was very pleased to have found this amazing bird, it is one of my best finds yet.

Earlier this year, I entered the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder competition, a birding competition for young people. After completing the initial application, I found out that I was in the final, which was being held at Spurn during Migfest. There were 6 finalists in total, 3 in each senior and junior categories. 

The assessment took place during Saturday morning of the festival and for every round we were taken out by a different assessor to be quizzed on our knowledge regarding a specific subject. The assessment subjects were Birding in Scrub, Vismig, Estuary-watching, Sea-watching and Theory. 

I'm very pleased to say that I won!! 

It was really rewarding to be recognised for my birding knowledge as well as having an opportunity to meet the assessors, all of whom were inspiring and have shaped a career in birding. 

The prize of a very nice pair of Swarovski 8X30 binoculars was a bonus...!

After the somewhat slow start to the week up in Flamborough, Spurn was amazing, and as well as seeing some very good birds, I also met a really great bunch of people. I'm hoping to return to Spurn later this year, as it is just such a special place.