6th to 9th October 2016 - A Few Days By The East Coast

Sometimes we book a short break on a whim and cross our fingers that the weather and wildlife sightings work out well. Not too long ago we decided to book a few days by the east coast of Yorkshire, three nights in the lovely village of Buckton, near Bridlington were sourced and paid for.
I tried to avoid looking at weather forecasts, after all we cannot change the weather we just have to make the best of what it brings. Sightings can be influenced depending on how far you are prepared to drive, ideally they occur close to where you are staying and time lost behind the steering wheel is kept to a minimum.

We know the RSPB reserve at Bempton quite well as we visit there each spring to see the many varieties of seabirds that nest there. As our cottage was near there we set off early so we could visit the reserve before settling into our home for three nights, how lucky were we!

Having checked the recent sightings list before setting off I had some expectations of some fairly rare birds....

A nice chiffchaff but not too rare...

This one was much debated, both at the time and for a couple of days before Bempton declared it to be an arctic warbler, very similar to greenish warbler which was the initial thought and there is a theory that both were there, whatever it was it was lovely to see. It is a bird that lives in very northern Europe and North America wintering in Asia, obviously the strong easterly winds were diverting birds from their normal migratory routes.

We knew of a big influx of yellow browed warblers, another bird that is rarely seen in the UK, a look around Bempton's Dell area got us some great sightings...

Another bird that breeds in North Europe and Asia and heads south for winter they are seen from year to year in the UK but not in the numbers occurring this time.

Our next "wow" was an eastern crowned warbler, only the UK's 4th sighting of this beauty, what a priviledge!

This bird must have had the most incredible journey, thousands of miles away from its normal area of East Asia!

Down by the cliffs a few gannets were still around....

The eastern crowned warbler was still showing when we returned to the Dell, what a little beauty.

And we had some very close views of a delightful goldcrest...

What a great first day, could we keep it up?

The next day the weather was dull, drab light is not anyone's favourite for photographs but nevertheless we headed out with expectations of good things to see....

Newly arrived redwing,

Juvenile gannet, they take 3 to 4 years to get the full adult plumage.

A very young gannet with parent.

A slightly surreal close experience with a goldcrest, probably newly arrived and totally unafraid of people...and cameras!

A taiga bean goose in amongst greylags....

And another goldcrest...

I do hope you are not tired of goldcrests yet! These incredible tiny birds fly hundreds of miles to reach our coasts at this time of year, some are resident all year round but the migratory ones tend to drop on the first suitable habitat they find, easy to see why after a long journey.

The following day we were lucky once again! A bluethroat, sightings do occur in the UK but a first for us...

And a red breasted flycatcher! Another fairly rare visitor to our shores brought in by the strong easterlies....

A wander around got us a whinchat...

A kestrel overhead...

And before our homeward journey, more sights of the bluethroat...

The red breasted flycatcher as well...

And to end a memorable trip more goldcrest shots...

The wonderful world of wildlife continues to amaze and delight us, as does our good fortune with sightings. Research has much to offer but we all need a bit of good luck now and again!

Many thanks to all who read the blog, you are really appreciated. Please don't forget if you do comment that they come to me first for moderation.

Next up a local catch up...

Cheers everyone!