Hi Ross,
Good question, and the short answer from me is 'no'!
I've often wondered what happens to all of the seabirds that are recorded along the NE coast of England. I know the seawatching effort will not be comparable, but it does happen up here in NE Scotland, and yet Balearic and large shears, and Sabs are less than annual, and Fea's types virtually unheard of. Long-tailed skua is another that is recorded in very low numbers, relative to further south.
For birds moving northward, I wonder if something happens around the Firth of Forth - perhaps birds move further offshore here to richer feeding areas, and continue northward via the Wee Bankie, far too far offshore to be seen from land.
In Sept 07 there were large numbers of great shear in the North Sea - with 35 past Flamborough on 11th, and multiple birds on many other days. Also, several hundred went past North Ron at about the same time (peaking at 91 on 12th). During this time, only 6 were seen off Aberdeenshire, despite us all being wise to what was happening, and putting a fair bit of time in! It makes sense to me that the Yorkshire and Orkney birds were part of the same movement, and that they passed too far off the east coast of Scotland to be detected.
It would be good to see if there are any tracks from tagged seabirds that could help out.