May 2013 - Bird Sightings Round Up

Tue 4th Jun, 2013

All things bright and beautiful..... May 2013 bird
sightings round-up

With barely time to draw breath after an already legendary April, May was soon delivering the goods, and it only got better and better as the month wore on. Indeed, with classic continental drift migrants arriving in droves and not one but two five-star rarities, it was arguably the best spring in years.

Starting with the headline-grabbers, Filey scored a perfect ten with a first for Yorkshire on the afternoon of the 28th. In pursuit of a smart male Red-backed Shrike, three local birders instead stumbled upon the technicolour sight of a stunning, just-arrived male Black-headed Wagtail pottering around the Tip pond. Unfortunately gone in no time, efforts to relocate it failed, despite frantic searches.

A similarly blessed birder bumped into a cracking male Collared Flycatcher at Sammy's Point near Spurn on the 18th – having just found a Broad-billed Sandpiper at nearby Patrington Haven! Almost as uncooperative as the wagtail, the flycatcher had gone by the following dawn, despite similarly intensive searches. Sammy's Point also produced a singing Thrush Nightingale on 31st, present into June, and various other quality birds – site of the month, surely....

Of the rest? Well, much to shout about, but the aforementioned Red-backed Shrike was arguably the other main story of the month. A trickle beginning on the 18th turned into veritable flood over the following days, and all the main hotspots enjoyed multiple arrivals, with peaks of three each at Flamborough and Filey and two at Scarborough, but it was the Spurn area that dominated, with an exceptional ten (and perhaps as many as twelve) on the 25th. 

An accurate count is best left until the dust settles and the recorders unpick their submissions, but an estimate of at least 30 birds for May would seem realistic, no doubt provoking more seasoned locals into flashbacks of the good old days....

In those seemingly distant times, Bluethroats were guaranteed from mid-May, but not for a long time since – until this year, that is, when at least six arrived bang on cue; two each for Flamborough and the Spurn area, one for Filey and one for Buckton.

Other scarcities came thick and fast, with the Spurn area alone hosting Wryneck, Serin, Red-throated Pipit, Ortolan, European Bee-eater, Wood Warbler, Scarlet Rosefinch (several), Red-rumped Swallow, Alpine Swift, two Marsh Warblers (with one also at Scarborough) and a Red-breasted Flycatcher (with two of the latter also at Flamborough).

Yet more overshooting goodness came with Icterine Warblers at Flamborough, Spurn and Scarborough late in the month, a singing Greenish Warbler on Castle Hill at the latter site on the 28th, a single Golden Oriole briefly at Flamborough on the 10th, Cranes at Spurn and Scarborough (two each) and Filey (a threesome on 31st), Montagu's Harriers  through Grimston, Filey and Spurn, and Great White Egrets at six well-scattered coastal locations.

Seabirds barely got a look-in, but single Great and Sooty Shearwaters passed Spurn, while the exceptional Long-tailed Skua influx into western Britain provided a few lucky observers with rare spring sightings on the east coast, too. After an adult skimming the rooftops of Filey town on the evening of the 23rd, both Scarborough (two) and Spurn (six) scored the following morning.

There was plenty more, but sadly we've got to stop somewhere.....!