Flamborough Trip

Over the weekend of the 25th to 27th of October, I stayed at The North Star Hotel on Flamborough Head to do some migration birding with some of my oldest birding friends. A trip planned well in advance and something my friends have been doing on and off for 19 years! I've never been able to join them before as my work commitments have always prevented me from going. But now I have changed jobs, and I can take time off when I want, so I joined them on this year's trip.

The birds on the trip are determined by the weather, and my friends have made the trip at various times in October. They have had some fantastic years and some quiet ones. This year, the forecast was for light wind from the south/south-west, lovely weather outside but terrible for migration and the chance of scarce or rare birds.

The first winter Red-Flanked Bluetail, which had arrived the week before, was still at Bempton RSPB, so we popped in to see it on our way past on Friday. Below is a record shot of the bird taken in poor light and fog with an unhelpful twig! It was a 'life tick' for me, so a good start to the weekend. Also, it's great to see the Tree Sparrows there!

We were up at dawn the next morning (despite an evening in The Viking pub), and some birds were coming in off the sea, Redwing in small parties, Meadow Pipits and Skylark.

It was great to see three small flocks of Whooper Swans arriving at the coast, along with some larger flocks of Pink-footed Geese.

We six spent the rest of the time in groups of two at locations across Flamborough, searching the hedgerows, fields, and woods for winter migrants. Although the weather was not ideal for getting great numbers of birds, it was very quiet, it was lovely weather to be out in with good company. Birds of note seen/heard include a Merlin, two Yellow-Browed Warbler, two Chiffchaff, fifteen Redpoll, two Swallow, two Snipe, and a Dunlin.

The sea was quiet, Gannet, Razorbill and Eider moving around the head or on the sea, plus double figures of Red-throated Diver. Also recorded a Great Northern Diver, a Little Gull and a Caspian Gull.

On a Sunday morning at Flamborough Head, there was more of the same on the sea. Twite were seen. There was a group of six, of which I saw one flyover. We had 20+ Bottlenose Dolphins pass close by the lighthouse. There were also a good number of Grey Seals and some Common Seals.

Although not great for birds (but a life tick for me!), what was most important was the time spent catching up with friends and having a good laugh over a few beers.

We had no owls at Bempton (there were a lot of people around in the good weather), but I did have a Short-eared Owl fly over the road just as we passed out of Bempton Village. A good full-stop to the trip.