The long journey up across the moors was trouble free,apart from a suicidal Red Grouse sat in the middle of the road in the dark!.
I eventually arrived at the car park at Skinningrove just as it was beginning to get light and got my gear together and headed out to look for the little beauty.
To start with we had a few heart stopping moments with a couple of Robins popping up,then all of a sudden there he was,the beautiful male Eastern-black Redstart.
At first he was pretty elusive spending long spells feeding in between the breakwater boulders,but as the air warmed and the insects became more active he spent much more time flycatching,with those striking red underparts and tail glowing in the early morning light,what a stunning little bird.
Unfortunately at times he was gaining some unwanted attention from one of the local Robins,which was a pain sometimes when we attempted to get some photos of this cracker,but most of the time he showed impeccably,showing at times down to 30 feet away.
This little bird has amazingly arrived off course from where he was hatched as a chick in central asia an amazing journey for such a small bird.
After enjoying a good couple of hours of watching this lovely bird,i heard that the possible Black-eared Wheatear seen at nearby Redcar the previous day,had been identified as a 1st winter male Pied Wheatear and it would be rude not to pay him a visit,so off i went.
Twenty minutes later and i was with the gathered group watching this superb little bird as it sallied after flies from the prom railings and side of the old cinema.Another eastern breeding species,breeding as close as eastern europe,this is only my third sighting of this lovely species,with previous birds at Reighton(1st W. Female) in November 2008 and at Spurn on 3rd October 2015(Adult Male).
When the assembled crowd backed off a little,this superb young male came down onto the beach and showed admirably,what a smart bird.
At last the sun had began to break through and i took some more images of the Wheatear before heading back to visit the Eastern-black Red,as the light in the morning had been pretty dull.
On arrival back at the Redstart,it was soon apparent there were more people present and to be fair at first he was a little buggar to see,often sitting for periods in little holes in the boulders,no doubt to escape from the bullying Robin.But eventually he started flycatching again and just kept coming closer and closer,until he was about 30 feet away,what an amazing bird.
After enjoying my fill of views of this cracking bird,i decided to call it a day and take a steady drive home with another superb days birding enjoyed.
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| Skinningrove Sunrise. |
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| Some superb birding habitat along this coast. |
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| 1st Winter Male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| 1st Winter Male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| First Winter male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| First Winter Male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| First Winter Male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| First Winter Male Eastern-black Redstart. |
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| First Winter Male Pied Wheatear. |
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| First Winter Male Pied Wheatear. |
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| If Only This Shot Had Been Sharp!. |
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| First Winter Male Pied Wheatear. |
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| First Winter Male Pied Wheatear. |
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| First Winter Male Pied Wheatear. |
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