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December 2014 bird sightings round-up

Thu 8th Jan, 2015

Another headline-grabbing month to end the year here on the Yorkshire coast, writes YCN's Mark James Pearson, which got off to a flyer and ended with an outrageous sting in the tail.... 

December wasted no time at all in hitting the bullseye, with a subspecific first for Yorkshire innocently hopping around a housing estate in Scalby belatedly causing quite a stir when its true identity was revealed. Found by a local resident in his garden and initially reported (and then reconfirmed) as a suspiciously late male Common Redstart, this wonderfully tame little chat was eventually re-identified as a striking Eastern Black Redstart

 

Present since at least 29th November, the bird thankfully hung around until 3rd, allowing a steady procession of admirers to fill their boots, lens and fields of view. The same day's unpromising conditions (south-westerly winds and little movement) nevertheless richly rewarded committed sea-watchers with a superb White-billed Diver south past Filey and then Flamborough late morning, making for a memorable day all round on the Yorkshire coast.

 

The month as a whole (and particularly the first half) was consistently good for a range of notable seabirds, with Little Auks and Pomarine Skuas being regular in reasonable numbers at various watch-points, Black-throated and Great Northern Divers well scattered, Long-tailed Ducks and Velvet Scoters likewise, and a small handful of Glaucous and Iceland Gulls (particularly in the northern section of our coast). Several sites were also graced by Tundra Bean Geese

Long-stayers included the Rough-legged Buzzard at Grindale, the Richard's Pipits at Hayburn Wyke, the Water Pipit at South Landing and the Black Brant Goose at Easington, and that seemed to be that, until an outrageously good find by a local patch-worker ruined the New Year's Eve plans of many a county lister.... 

 

The appearance of a Little Bustard in the coastal Wilsthorpe / Fraisthorpe area just south of Bridlington no doubt took everyone by surprise, causing the kind of mass twitch deserving of a species which last graced the county way back in 1956. Remaining until New Year's Day but not beyond, the bustard glamorously and appropriately book-ended another fantastic year for the Yorkshire coast. 

Mark James Pearson