Citrine Wag And Arboreal Stunner......Sunday 09.11.2014.

After hearing earlier in the week that a 1st winter Citrine Wagtail had been found at South Landing at Flamborough,i prayed it would stop until i could pay the site a visit today.
 I had missed the opportunity on several occasions in the past to add this eastern Wagtail sp. to me life list and when you don't twitch much outside of York's or Linc's it certainly cuts your options.

1st winter Citrine Wagtail,South Dykes.

1st winter Citrine Wagtail,South Dykes.

1st winter Citrine Wagtail,South Dykes.

1st winter Citrine Wagtail,South Dykes.

Woodcock,South Dykes.

Woodcock,South Dykes.

Woodcock,South Dykes.

 So as i arrived at Danes Dyke car park the pressure was on a bit.After paying the very reasonable 2.50 for all day parking i made my way down to the beach area.There were a few others also looking for the wagtail and after a few false calls,i managed to find the bird feeding under the cliff base.
 At first it was a right pain in the proverbial to get near,but with plenty of patience it eventually showed very well,the best way to locate it was by the birds buzzy call.This bird was an interesting individual and showed an orangy bill base which isn't a feature usually found on Citrine,or as far as the literature suggests,but there maybe a population somewhere in the far east that shows this regularly.Some excellent identification work was done on this bird by Martin Garner to confirm the ID,with sonograms taken and the ID clinched.
 After watching the Wagtail for some time myself along with Andy Kinghorn,decided to walk up to South Landing and look for the Water Pipit.En route the only highlights we managed was a flock of 8 Common Scoter.At South Landing the Pipit was found pretty much straight away,loosely associating with a flock of 5 Rock Pipits and showed not too bad for a Water Pipit,but it was soon flying off again,so we left it alone.
 Back to more views of the Wagtail,a small group of us were watching it when all of a sudden a bird flew in off the sea and plonked itself right next to the Wag,promptly flushing it.It soon became clear what the culprit was....a stunning Woodcock.The bird gave amazing,point blank views and for those present a great chance to study the species out in the open and in daylight...what a beauty!!.
 After taking a stack of photos of the stunning arboreal visitor,i had another go at getting some more images of the wagtail and this time it showed much better.
 Other birds seen while on site included a single Brambling near the car and at least 15 Rock Pipits and 2 Grey Wagtail on the beach near the Wagtail.
 Another superb day out today in the home county.