Even though the grey weather persists on the coast, I felt it would be more advantageous for a June day's birding and, with few rarities about this week I was going to cover a fairly wide area. I began my travels to the South of Hornsea, walking the coastal cliffs. In the field ahead of me, two Barn Owls were hunting for prey and remained in that area as I passed through. The light was rather dismal with few birds singing in the hedgerows. A number of Whitethroats were about and a Sedge Warbler began singing from a nearby bush. A large number of Sand Martins were becoming active, presumably nesting in the clay cliffs. Eight Common Swifts flew North and a Cuckoo flew over me, giving out its rather broken 'June' call. There was a family of Lesser Whitethroats and this is probably one of the adults. Six Lesser Whitethroats were heard or seen on this walk. A young-looking Whitethroat learning to feed itself. In all, 34 species were seen on this walk, others included R-l Partridge, Song Thrush, Skylark and Reed Bunting. My next call was to Hornsea Mere. In the distance I could make out Common Buzzards and a Marsh Harrier flying over the far end of the Mere. There were not many ducks at this time of year, just a few Tufted Duck, Pochard and Teal. It was encouraging to see hundreds of Common Swifts along with House Martins and Swallows, feeding quite high up. Eventually I caught sight of a Hobby, dashing about the sky in pursuit of dragonflies. The sky was brightening up by midday and I moved on to Flamborough for the afternoon. I dropped in to Thornwick Pools in the hope of a passing Stint or other interesting wader. There were only two waders present - a Little Ringed Plover and a smart summer adult Redshank. A few Herring Gulls began to drop in, including this one Y:B11 ringed in York! Two Great Black-backed Gulls appeared, an adult and a 3rd year(?) individual. With a nice, sunny sky I took a short walk on to the North Landing cliffs. Instead of taking pictures of perched Puffins which I've done on numerous occasions, I looked for a few on the sea and found good numbers. In fact, the sea was alive with birds - Guillemots, Puffins and Razorbills. Passing Gannets and a Fulmar. I came across 61 species on my walks today, of which one third were migrant or summer visitors and two-thirds were resident birds. No rarities found but a good day's birding on the Yorkshire coast. Meanwhile...... There has been a rather interesting upturn in garden sightings this week. I've said previously that I hear Tree Sparrows flying locally and for the first time, one made an appearance in my garden and investigated a nestbox which would be suitable for such a species. I was more than pleased to see this Tree Sparrow in the garden but was even more surprised when later, a juvenile bird was feeding on the fatballs!
Throughout this week, the juvenile has been feeding regularly, there appears to be only the one and the adult bird has not returned to approve the nestbox. Comments are closed.
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