Hmm

On Tuesday I gave Flamborough Head a thorough thrashing but as it has taken me 2 days to get around to blogging about it I'm sure you can draw from that it wasnt an epic success. Indeed migration seemed to be none existant largely until late knockings. The weather was fine and sunny with a light northerly breeze, not exactly ideal conditions for grounding scarce migrants but I decided to go ahead anyway - it only takes one bird to brighten the day up after all.

First up I was at Holmes Gut, the ravine between Thornwick Bay & North Landing. Here I bumped into the local ringers who gave me the news that quiet wasnt quite the word for it. I carried on cheery as you like but inside I died a little. Until that point the non-logical part of me continued to hope there was to be a scattering of migrants drifted south from rare covered Shetland. At the time what seemed like pretty lean pickings on reflection seems quite reasonable. 1 Goldcrest, 1 Blackcap & 2 Stonechats. Rather frustratingly as the ringers drove a hedge to catch a couple of Robins a long, warm warbler shot into the bottom of the next ditch. Very acro-esque and probably a Reed Warbler but I had ammo to allow me to string in my head all day...

I bid farewell to the ringers as the continued with their lean pickings. Next I went to old fall. In 2 hours I managed 3 Goldcrests, 1 Willow Warbler & 4 Swallows. Rubbish. That took in the hedge, the plantation, the gullys, the gorse field, the motorway, headland gardens, bay brambles, bay willows and all the way back to old fall steps. Apparently I missed a Lesser Whitethroat. This does not upset me.

My final destination was to be South Landing. Here it all seemed a bit more promising when a roving tit flock held 3 Goldcrests and a juvenile Common Buzzard was flushed by the local maggies. All quiet for the next hour but as I got to the bottom of the ravine a few thrushes were about including 4 Redwing. And that was it. No scarce, hardly any common. It was all pretty quiet. Originally I had planned to do something similar yesterday but instead I went for a wander round the village and found 2 Snipe in a stubble field next to a flash.