Hawsker/Robin Hood's Bay/Ravenscar, North Yorks (1 Viewer)

[Ross Ahmed]

Down here camping for past few days and managed a bit of birding. Superb concentration of warblers in the wooded ravine and overgrown hedges leading up from Robin Hood's Bay incl probably over 20 Chiffchaffs seen/heard in different areas over 2 days plus 9 Whitethroats, 5 Blackcap and 4 Lesser Whitethroat. Surprisingly only 2 Willow Warblers though. Also good range of other common birds incl a family party of Spotted Flycatchers and Green Woodpecker. A party of 7 Crossbills which flew W over Ness Point at 05.30 on 31st had clearly just arrived from the sea, and a Peregrine was seen this morning.

Anyone birded this area at all? With such a high concentration of what are presumably breeding passerines, this must surely be an excellent area in which to search for migrants - certainly looks as though it is. It would be hard work however with so much cover, but the rewards could be high. Seawatching is probably pretty good as well. Added to this the stunning scenery and you can't go wrong.

I'll probably head back down for a weekend next autumn, and give the area a good thorough bashing.

 

[Ingsbirder]

2/3 of us birded this area quite intensively between 1990-2005, though much less so in recent years. The prime areas are Ness Point and Whitestone Point (by the lighthouse). Ravenscar is probably okay but so much of it is impenetrable that it's a needle in a haystack job and an area that we never paid much attention to (there are only so many hours in the day).

We had some good finds over the years with Issie Wheatear, couple of Hume's, plus more expected stuff like the regular sibes and drift species. As you will have noticed though there is a lot of habbo, with large ravines at Raindale and Hawsker, plus smaller ravines that are still bigger than somewhere like Arndale at Filey. The best area for migrants tends to be alongside the disused railway track itself up from RH Bay, whilst seawatching can be good off Ness Point in the right conditions - perhaps numbers could be as good as, if not better than Filey, if there were as many folk seawatching.

It's hard work though and long days can bring little reward, but when stuff is turning up you're always likely to bump into a YB Warbler, or possibly a Pallas's, plus earlier on Red-b Shrike and Wryneck are regular along with occasional Barred Warblers and good numbers of commoner migrants (if the word commoner can still be applied nowadays).

A great area and one that is hardly watched! Most folk find it a lot easier to go to Flams/Filey/Spurn than trudge around up and down those ravines from dawn to dusk.........