Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Super Scarborough....Sunday 27th November 2016.

Saturday, 3 December 2016

Super Scarborough....Sunday 27th November 2016.

With a good forecast and some great birds on offer,i decided to head over to my fave seaside town today.
The journey up across the wolds was trouble free and it was just over an hour before i was parking up on Marine Drive,just as it was beginning to get light properly.
As it was low tide,i decided to watch the sea first,with a few Gannets and Fulmars passing by distantly and closer in several Guillemot and Shags dived for food with 3 female/immature Common Scoter being the highlight.
I decided then to have a look for the previous days Black Redstart behind the wall along Marine Drive,but it drew a blank unfortunately,but all was not lost,with a cracking male Stonechat showing nicely.
Back to the car and just as i reached it a Peregrine appeared overhead and give superb flight views before settling down on the cliff.I then settled down to watch this supreme master of the air as he preened,giving fantastic scope views,what brilliant birds they are and i still always feel privileged to see one.
After watching the Perg,i wandered down to the harbour entrance seeing 3 Eider pass close by north and then a scan of North Bay revealed the resident Red-throated and Great-northern Divers and a couple of Guillemot.
In the Harbour the Black-necked Grebe showed well,but never close for photo's,but it was great to see all the same and could well be one of the birds from the previous winter returning.
After lunch i returned to the harbour and spent the remainder of the day here,enjoying fantastic views of the Great-northern Diver and 38 Purple Sandpiper which were roosting on the rocks near the East Pier.
After taking plenty of photos and enjoying my fill of views of the star birds i took a steady drive home after another great visit to this great birding area.