I got up bright and early,loaded the car up and headed over the Humber and into the home county.
As it started to get light,it looked pretty grey and overcast with drizzle in the air and with a substantial northerly wind,i thought seawatching first and see what the weather does.
After parking at the Warren gate i made my way over to the seawatching hide and it was already full with expectant observers,so i decided to stay outside joining Adam Hutt and after a short while Tim Jones.
Birds were on the move right away as soon as it got light,with our first Sooty and Manx Shearwaters moving north,sometimes in mixed groups which gave us all a great chance to compare flight action and build.The Sooties are just pure masters of the air and for me are such impressive,powerful birds.It always amazes me how far these birds have come to grace our coastline....all the way from the South Atlantic Ocean,just fantastic.
After watching for a while more highlights included a flock of 30 Bonxies moving south high up and the first of several Juvenile Long-tailed Skuas.
The latter species,almost on show for the whole seawatch,gave some great views and it was really nice to watch them with their more tern like habits,dropping to the surface to pick off food items,rather than the bullying antics of the other skua species.On a couple of occasions we had three birds together,just superb stuff!.All the birds were juveniles apart from one sub adult bird.A feature of the watch also included masses of Meadow Pipits coming in off the sea and heading south and involved at least 800 birds!,impressive stuff to see these tough little birds making landfall and actively migrating.
At times the visibility was really poor and it made us wonder what we were missing,as at one particular time there was a stream of Sooties and Manxies relatively close in,but you just could not see any further out.
This was further highlighted when a news report came in that 2 Great Shearwaters had been seen from Flamborough,no doubt they had passed us by.
A nice diversion from the seawatching saw Adam and Tim driving the Warren Heligoland trap and trapping and ringing a Garden Warbler and a Pied Flycatcher which were really nice to see at close quarters.
Back to the scopes and more superb seabirds,included bird of the seawatch after Adam called a Leach's Petrel.It was watched as it flew south and then it reached the breach and doubled back north,before heading further out.What a privilege it was to see this proper oceanic species and my first for several years.Sample totals from the seawatch included an impressive 361 Sooty Shearwater North,157 Manx Shearwater North,9 Long-tailed Skua,the afore mentioned Leach's Ptrel,47 Bonxie and 127 Red-throated Divers south.
As things quietened down,it had been agreed by a landowner near to the Crown and Anchor to walk the field were the earlier reported Great Snipe had been seen to fly into and a group of hopefull birders gathered to walk the field,but sadly it was to no avail.It would have been a great way to end the day,but for most of the birders present,we had all seen the ultra tame bird from 2013.
So what a cracking day was enjoyed today,albeit a wet and windswept one,but it was great to see some cracking seabirds and re-aquaint myself with those beautiful Long-tailed Skuas,top class!.
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| Pied Flycatcher And Garden Warbler,trapped in the Warren Heligoland Trap. |
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