As many people who know me,my birding is mainly taken up by watching my local patch At East Halton/Goxhill on the Humber,but i do also occasionally twitch birds,mainly in my home county of Yorkshire,but also in my adopted county of Lincolnshire,as well as further afield if it's a proper mega or something I havn't seen before.
2021 has turned out to be an exceptional one in my home county of Yorkshire and this is the story of the species i travelled to see.
It all started for me in May,with a trip over to St.Aidens RSPB reserve near Leeds on the 22nd to see a species i should have already seen by now,Franklin's Gull.
This stunning gull was watched displaying in amongst the Black-headed Gull colony and gave some outstanding views and i also managed to take some pretty decent video of the bird,new species number one.
Tracey had pre-booked us a weekend away at Whitby from the 1st June,which was a stroke of genius,as an adult Lesser-grey Shrike had been found nearby the previous day,with the bonus of a flock of 11 Bee-eater for visitors to enjoy.
I was obviously gripped off by this and after enjoying a trip on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway in the morning,we made our way to see the Shrike before heading to the Hotel.
The Shrike showed admirably and was my first sighting of an adult of the species,after i had only seen autumn juveniles in the past.
As we walked back to the car,a guy was waving us over and i just thought to myself,surely the Bee-eaters havn't come back..Imagine my disbelief when there on the overhead telephone wires were a flock of 9 Bee-eaters....talk about jammy!
The birds gave some superb views as they cruised about catching several Wasps and Bees and 2 pairs were even seen mating.Next day they were gone,but later were seen touring Suffolk.
Next,was the return of bird of the year for me, Albert,the Black-browed Albatross....
I had hoped,along with the rest of the birding community,that this amazing bird would return to the Gannet colony at Bempton RSPB after his brief visit in 2020 and he duly obliged staying from 27th June until 24th September.....an amazing 90 days,spending 64 of those on site,allowing people to twitch him from far and wide.I managed to see him on 3 occasions myself,along with Tracey,gaining some outstanding views,sometimes only a few metres away....what a bird!
After seeing on line on the 2nd July that amazingly Paul French had found a 'Meena' Rufous-turtle Dove in his garden at Easington near to Spurn,i had to attempt to see the bird,as it would be a new bird for my Yorkshire list and only my second sighting of this race.
After meeting up with Tim on site and a bit of a runaround attempting to see the bird,as it was commuting between Paul and Georgia's garden and Tony Broome's garden,we were very kindly allowed into Paul and Georgia's house to view the bird in their garden.It gave some cracking views as it preened and dozed,what a great addition to their garden list and a great chance to study the bird at leisure.
July has traditionally been a month to catch up with rare Terns in the country and a trip over to Southfield Reservoir on the 9th,only a stones throw from Thorne,saw me catching up with one of 3 Caspian Terns that had been seen on the Humber and visiting here.
The bird gave some superb scope views,with me finally adding this monster Tern to my Yorkshire list as I watched it catch a couple of fish.
All hell broke loose while i was at work on the 28th August,after a text message from Tim to say a White-tailed Lapwing had been found at Blacktoft Sands RSPB...Frustratingly,it is about 20 minutes from work to the reserve,but i didn't have any gear with me,so i travelled home got the kit and headed straight back to Blacktoft,thankfully it was still present and gave some cracking views,another mega rare wader to be found on the reserve after Britain's first Hudsonian Godwit was found here in September 1981 and another first in July 1986,in the form of Britain's first Red-necked Stint.
This was another new species for myself and was payback after dipping one at Caerlaverock in Dumfries & Galloway in June 2007.The Blacktoft bird was also still present last week,after becoming Britain's longest staying bird.
On the 9th September,i was dashing back up to Bempton again for the umpteenth time this year,not to visit Albert this time,but to twitch Yorkshire's first Green Warbler,which had been expertly found by Head Of RSPB Investigations, birder and ringer Mark Thomas at his ringing site at Buckton only a spit from from the reserve.
This bird,was the most difficult i twitched this year so far with not ideal viewing conditions while i was on site and the behaviour of some of the twit...chers on site,but i eventually got some tickable views and heard the bird call on one occasion as well.This is the 9th record for Britain and the first twitchable bird on the mainland,so obviously attracted a substantial amount of visitors during its stay.
After arriving back from our holiday in North Wales on 17th,a quick evening twitch over to Easington near Spurn,saw me enjoying some cracking views of only my second Isabelline Wheatear as it showed really well infront of the gas terminal.Typically it had gone next day to disappoint the weekend twitchers,but while we watched it,it was constantly feeding and looked like it would go to be fair.This is incredibly,the 5th record for the Spurn recording area.
A bit of a theme continued on the next biggie,as on the evening of the 8th October a wader had been found at St.Aidens RSPB(Remember the Franklin's Gull) which was identified initially as a Temminck's Stint....then a Least Sandpiper and then finally as Britain's 3rd Long-toed Stint after some excellent photos had been taken!!!.
A quick dash up the M62 saw me seeing the bird relatively straight away and gaining some decent views,albeit at 60x on the big Swaro.This species should be residing in India or South East Asia now instead of Yorkshire,a long way from it's breeding grounds in Eastern Siberia.
This bird also constituted a new species for me and also the first record of an adult in Britain,the last record a juvenile,being as long ago as September 1982.
Finally on the 16th October,Spurn got in on the act again,when a Phyllosc which was found initially as a Yellow-browed Warbler,was quickly re-identified as Yorkshire's 2nd and Britain's 10th Two-barred Greenish Warbler.
Tim and myself were on site for dawn next morning and it wasn't long before i was watching my first Two-barred Greenish Warbler.The bird gave some stunning views and stayed faithfull to the canal bushes area allowing all visitors to see this very rare siberian visitor.
Final Yorkshire mega of the year,was seen again in the Flamborough recording area,a Taiga Flycatcher.
A bird had been amazingly found at the lighthouse headland on the same day as the Two-barred Warbler had been discovered at Spurn,but had sadly done a bunk the next day and then this bird was found in the wooded ravine at South Landing on the 4th November.
There is some discussion as to whether this bird is the same bird as seen on 16th October at the Fog Station or that it is a different individual,frankly i was just pleased to see it as it was another addition to my Yorkshire list.
It showed pretty well considering it spent all it's time feeding high up in the canopy when i visited,what a cracking little bird,being only the 5th for Britain,but amazingly the 2nd for Flamborough after the first was found at Old Fall in April 2003.
Nearby on the visit today,was my 5th Red-flanked Bluetail which showed really nicely also,what a cracking species these beautiful Chats are.
Well what a year in Yorkshire and particularly East Yorkshire and amazingly i managed to add 5 lifers and 8 Yorkshire ticks through this bountiful year with all the species being seen only an hour or so from home.
I now look forward to see what 2022 will bring,it will be pretty tough trying to repeat this year,but you never know,this is the best mainland birding county,so who knows what could turn up.
No comments:
Post a Comment