We set off from Leeds at 7.30am, Jimmy2Faces, FrankieB and myself. Off to the East Coast to see what we could find. The itinerary was Filey, Bempton, and South Landing, but we finished the day with a visit to Fairburn Ings on the way home.
In Filey, the Dams was the first place we visited, a nice little reserve overlooking a couple of shallow pools. Other than a handful of snipe there wasn’t too much there of note, so we quickly moved on to the Country Park.
Having parked up and walked down Arncliffe ravine to the beach, we made our way along the Brigg finding a common scoter out in the bay. There were the usual turnstones galore among the rocks with a few purple sandpipers further out towards the seaward end of the Brigg. There was quite a movement of gannets southwards; we counted at least 200 birds in groups of up to 20 or so. Only a few common terns to be found here so we were a bit disappointed as there had been roseate terns in the bay a few days ago.
Following a tiring climb back to the clifftop we made our way along the top and back to the car park in a loop taking in the ‘Rocket field’. We had 3 yellow wagtails fly over and keep right on…no landing so no chance to check out their head colouration.
Having got back to the car we decided to move onto Bempton…where there wasn’t much other than some late gannet chicks and feral pigeons on cliffs. The little feeding station had a good number of tree sparrows and greenfinches, and the dell area had a solitary whitethroat. So it was back into the car and onto South Landing…which was a washout…the woods were almost devoid of birds and the tide was out so not much about. At this point we had a discussion as to where to go next…there aren’t that many reserves in East Yorkshire and those that are there are well scattered. The result of the discussion was that a trip to Fairburn on the way home to Leeds was the thing…check out the new hide at Lin Dyke.
We visited the Visitor Centre at Fairburn and picked up the latest reserve report…2004. How long before the 2005 report is ready I wonder? What a shock we got when we got to the Lin Dyke area of the reserve….the path had been made up with a good layer of hard core and there’s every chance that during the winter months you could get to the hide dryshod for a change. The hide…what surprise…built on some of the rockfilled wire crate thingies we saw a tin shed! About the size of a moderate wagon container, it could house maybe a dozen people without being too cramped, but in strong sunshine it’s going to get very warm in there. Sadly this is just about the only way that a hide will stay in one piece at this end of the reserve, the locals thinking it great fun to torch hides.
Altogether a bit of a disappointing day with only 1 warbler and a total of 60 species seen.
Total List
Little grebe
Great crested grebe
Fulmar
Gannet
Cormorant
Shag
Grey heron
Mute swan
Greylag goose
Canada goose
Shelduck
Teal
Mallard
Shoveler
Tufted duck
Ruddy duck
Common scoter
Kestrel
Moorhen
Coot
Oystercatcher
Ringed plover
Lapwing
Knot
Purple sandpiper
Dunlin
Snipe
Redshank
Turnstone
Black-headed gull
Herring gull
Great black-backed gull
Common tern
Guillemot
Wood pigeon
Collared dove
Swift
Swallow
House martin
Meadow pipit
Yellow wagtail
Pied wagtail
Wren
Dunnock
Robin
Blackbird
Whitethroat
Blue tit
Great tit
Magpie
Jackdaw
Rook
Carrion crow
Starling
House sparrow
Tree sparrow
Chaffinch
Greenfinch
Goldfinch
Linnet