Steve's Birding,Wildlife & Walking Blog: Flamborough/Bempton Megas & Scarce Migrants, Sunday 22nd & Sunday 29th September & Saturday October 5th 2024

Over the last few weeks, some really productive easterly winds have blown in some fantastic rare birds into the Flamborough Bird Observatory recording area, including some first class rarities.

The following are the birds seen during my three visits, which included a second record for Britain and also a third for Yorkshire.

Sunday 22nd September

The previous day, an interesting Iduna Warbler was found along Old Fall Hedge and was confirmed as Flamborough's 2nd record of Eastern Olivaceous Warbler and Yorkshire's 3rd record.

Fast forward to Sunday morning and i was up bright and early and arrived at Flamborough for first light in slightly misty conditions.

I got my gear together and slowly made my way down to Old Fall checking all the gardens on the way.

The first good birds i encountered, were 2 Yellow-browed Warblers as i walked down to the area the Olivaceous Warbler had been seen the previous day, a lovely start and the first i have seen this year of this regularly recorded 'Sibe'.

We checked the area where the bird had been seen and saw nothing, so i wandered around Old Fall plantation seeing, incredibly, a further 5 Yellow-browed's, this was a superb start to the day, 7 Yellow-browed's!. As i walked back towards Old Fall hedge, i saw 3 species of Flycatcher, all singles, of Pied, Spotted and a very elusive Red-breasted Flycatcher. The latter was calling and being harried by a Wren, behaviour i have witnessed in the past.

A small group of birders had arrived and we all looked for the Eastern Oli to the sound of calling YBW's just brilliant!.

Then we got a call and someone had found the Eastern Oli. We made our way back around to Old Fall Hedge and enjoyed some great views as the bird fed in the hedgerow, showing all the diagnostic features including the species tail pumping action, like an oversized Chiffchaff.

This is my second personal record of the species, after i saw one in this very location in September 2010.

Unfortunately the weather began to deteriorate slowly as banks of fog came and went, with the visibility not being great at times.

I wandered back towards the car, checking all the roadside gardens again and the final nice bird of the visit was seen in a garden near the lighthouse car park, another Red-breasted Flycatcher. This bird showed far better than the elusive individual at Old Fall and i even managed to get a brief video clip, a nice end to the visit.

Sunday 29th September

Over previous days an interesting, wing barred Phylloscopus Warbler had been found at Bempton Cliffs in the car park/bird feeding area. Some great detective work by the Bempton team of birders finally nailed the bird as Britain's second and only live record of Pale-legged Leaf Warbler!!!!!.

As you can imagine, the drive up to Bempton on Sunday morning was a fairly nervy one, but I was adamant the bird would still be present.

I got to the car park, to a handful of cars and took my place in the car park and waited for it to get light.

As it got light i got some warm clothes on and made my way around to where the bird had roosted the previous evening. Thankfully i was in a great position to look for the bird as more people arrived and it wasn't long before i got onto the bird as it moved from it's roost site(Thank god for my Swaro 10 x 52's with the extra light gathering). The long white supercilium being striking and then it was gone again.

Ten minutes went by and it again appeared and began calling, with its distinctive call and even showed overhead in a willow giving some superb views.

In all i heard it call about 8 times and saw it at least 6 times well.

The views revealed the birds ID features with it's dark grey crown, long white supercilium, dark eye stripe and bronzy wing panel, with faint wing bars, but it was the call which was the most important feature to identify it from it's very similar sister species, Sakhalin-leaf Warbler.

The bird then moved over into the area were the bird feeders are situated and it showed briefly for me in this area. While watching here, a couple of Yellow-browed Warblers gave some nice views.

This species had only been seen in Britain as a definite record once before, when a dead bird was found under St. Agnes lighthouse on the Scilly Isles on the 21st October 2016.

And a bird on Portland in Dorset in 2014 wasn't nailed to species and was accepted as either Pale-legged Leaf Warbler or Sakhalin-leaf Warbler.

Onto Flamborough for the remainder of the day and a far more relaxed affair saw me visiting Holmes Gut where a few niceties had been located.

First goodies were 2 Red-breasted Flycatcher, feeding in the stand of Sycamores, but also occasionally visiting the adjacent Hawthorn hedge giving some lovely views. Also here were 2 Yellow-browed Warblers and finally i got onto the reported Icterine Warbler.

The latter was my first for some years and it was great to study the bird through the scope, with it's lovely lemon yellow wash to it's face and breast, a gorgeous bird.

After enjoying all these goodies an aborted attempt to look for the Siberian Stonechat near North Dykes drew a blank, but 3 Wheatear were nice to watch along a stubble field.

After all this excitement, i headed home after adding this mega rare Leaf Warbler to my life list, what a great day!.

Saturday 5th October

An early start today, saw me heading north again to the Flamborough area to see a couple of birds i have seen before, with one being a particular favourite.

I arrived at South Landing to a bright, but pretty windy dawn and walked the mile or so with a couple of other visitors to Booted Gully which is situated between South Landing and Old Fall.

Its a small wooded valley which runs down to the sea and the previous day a Red-flanked Bluetail had been found here.

After arriving at Booted Gully we searched the area, but found nothing, so i left the other guys and walked around to the sheltered side of the gully when the Bluetail flew out and onto the path in front of me at a about 40 feet away. I watched it through the bins as it perched on the dead Umbellifer stems on the edge of the path, showing off those orangy flanks, cobalt blue wash to it's tail, white throat patch and big eyes with neat white eye rings, what a bird!.

Now i have seen 6 of these lovely little Chats to date, but they are a bird i absolutely love, just stunning in my opinion, as are all the Chat family, but these are something special in my eyes.

They have become commoner in recent years after they have started breeding as close as Finland and are expected at east coast locations such as Flamborough or Spurn in the right conditions.

After watching this little stunner, more and more people arrived and the bird became more elusive, unfortunately, there are some twitchers who are just not patient.

I walked back to South Landing looking for migrants and enjoyed some nice views of a Yellow-browed Warbler and shortly afterwards a good candidate for a Siberian Chiffchaff, with it's colder grey upperparts, but it didn't call unfortunately.

After enjoying the South Landing area i decided to travel over to Bempton RSPB to see if i could see the recently found Daurian Shrike.

On arrival at Bempton to a considerably quieter car park than the previous week, i made my way along the nature trail to where the Shrike was being watched.

After a few minutes i got my first views of this lovely bird, as it was watched perched up on the top of a Hawthorn, showing off it's striking pallid plumage, reddish tail, greyish bill, weak mask behind the eye and lovely subtle crescent markings on the birds crown, breast, flanks and head making for a very smart bird. On close views through the scope, the brownish/red iris could also be appreciated.

I spent a good hour or so watching this visitor from the far east as it caught several Wasps, despatching them with ease and then wiping the stinger of on a branch or Bramble stem. This was a great piece of behaviour to watch and the bird certainly performed well, allowing some great chances to get some phone-scoped photos and video.

After enjoying this cracking bird, it was off to my final destination for the day, Bridlington Harbour, where a little visitor from the Arctic tundra had been found, a Grey Phalarope.

After paying for my parking, i made my way down to the harbour mouth, to be treated to some fantastic close views and flybys from this pelagic wader and it was a real challenge to video through the scope, being too close at times.

These birds are always a crowd pleaser and it is always a pleasure to see one.

Also around the Harbour, were at least 4 Purple Sandpiper, adding another nice species to this already superb day.

Well what a series of awesome visits to the Flamborough area and what a great privilege to see these rare and scarce migrants with some great company along the way and i will very much look forward to my next visit up here, what an area!.