After receiving news from Tim that a Brown Booby had been found off Flamborough and sat on the sea there i didn't think that next day after getting home from Snowdonia that i would get a second bite at the cherry so to speak.
As often happens i seem to time my holidays right and Monday 4th happened exactly like that.
A quick look on Birdguides as i got up had me collecting my birding gear rather quickly and disappearing quickly over the Humber and heading for North Yorkshire!.
The previous days Brown Booby had been photographed resting on Filey Brigg and had been thankfully re-located on the sea off Hunmanby Gap,so that is the direction i headed in at a rapid rate.
As the tide was going out i thought the bird may drift south,so i headed for Reighton.
I arrived to not another birder in sight.
I made my way down to the sea and began to scan seeing a distant brown blob,that must be it i thought to myself.
After a timely meeting with Andy Malley at Reighton,he had a message saying the bird was showing well off Primrose Valley,so that's where i went next.
Within five minutes i was watching my first Brown Booby.......get in!.
I watched as the bird drifted about on the tide for a good twenty minutes or so before it took to the wing flying straight for me,getting cracking views in the scope,with the pale face and bill really standing out from the brown body and as it flew past side on the white underparts really contrasted well.
It looked obviously smaller than a Gannet with a curious stiff winged flight action and a really long,spiky tail giving it a very distinctive jizz.
It then landed with a feeding flock of Gulls,which didn't really go down well with them and they briefly chased it and it settled further away.
It then flew again towards Bempton and that is the last i saw of it that day.
Fast forward to the 7th September and the bird was seen flying north at Filey Brigg,then at Long Nab near Scarborough,before it stopped off briefly at Whitby before being seen off Sandsend,then Cowbar and finally South Gare in Teesmouth.
The bird then settled into a pattern of being seen off North and South Gare and stayed in the area,so Tracey and myself decided to go and see the bird again,so that Trace could add the species to her life list.
So an early start on the 10th saw us heading north and after our journey along the A1 and A621 we arrived at South Gare.
A quick chat to some guys watching for the bird and they said it had flown off,but i quickly got onto the bird in flight as it was chased by a Herring Gull briefly,it then flew out into the mouth of the Estuary.
About ten minutes later it was relocated sat on a buoy off the South Gare lighthouse,so that is where we all headed.
Sure enough the bird was sat on the buoy and we settled down to watch it as it preened,albeit at some distance,but it was great for Trace to be able to see this cracker.
After enjoying some nice views of the bird we headed south to Whitby to spend the rest of our day there.
The Booby is obviously our first sightings of the species and a new bird for Yorkshire and a most welcome and surprising one at that.
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