A day in North and East Yorkshire - June 25, 2015

David, Roger and I had decided to visit Wykeham Forest in North Yorkshire in the hope of seeing Honey Buzzard.  We saw very little on route in what was a three and a half hour journey and we when we reached the raptor watch point there were several birders already present but they had only seen Buzzards and a Goshawk.  We settled down to view the valley but the bird of prey activity was pretty slow with just an odd Buzzard being seen but we did see Siskin on a few occasions and a single Crossbill was also seen briefly.  Several Buzzards were then picked up soaring around together and one was clearly different to the others being longer winged and tailed and constantly soaring on flat wings.  Everyone was able to pick the bird out amongst the Buzzards and the general consensus was that it was a Honey Buzzard but the views were rather disappointing due to the distance.  A short while later David picked up another bird of prey alongside a Buzzard, which I considered to be a Goshawk as it had a typical accipiter silhouette but being almost as large as the nearby Buzzard but again the views were very distant.

Although a little disappointed with the views we eventually decided to call it a day and head off to Bempton where we knew we would at least be able to get views a little closer.  The car park was pretty full when we arrived and apparently it was the official opening of the new centre but this didn’t prevent us from getting to the cliffs and so after some lunch we walked the short distance to the cliff top.  As always at this site there were auks everywhere and we had good views of Guillemot, Razorbill and Puffin as well as Fulmar, Gannet and Kittiwake.

Gannet and chick

Adult Gannet

Immature Gannet

Gannets

Kittiwake

Kittiwake and young

Guillemot

Guillemot

Razorbill

Razorbill

Puffin

Puffin

There had been a Great Skua reported but despite an extensive search we were unable to locate it and having seen all the birds we were hoping for we moved off to South Landing at Flamborough.

After parking and walking down to the lifeboat station to view the bay we saw nothing of note, although there were plenty of Gannets, Kittiwakes and auks and a single Fulmar.

We found out when we got home that the reported Great Skua was only present during the morning but was in fact a juvenile Pomarine Skua and another disappointment was that there was a Black Redstart in the garden area.