Few common migrants but bring on the scarce!

Well, the excellent spell continues along the coast here!

Thursday began with Micky and I working the Long Nab area. The sea was lousy, with very little to look at apart from Gannets and was an incredible contrast to recent days. With a moderate south-east wind blowing accompanied by rain, cloud and steady drizzle plus reports of good numbers of drift migrants to the south it seemed that the prize must lay in the bushes or fields. The best part of three hours later and we were reconsidering that idea! Just a Wheatear, a handful of Willow Warblers, an increase in Whitethroats plus the Spotted Flycatcher still in residence all suggested that there was very little if anything new in at all. A trickle of waders hinted at the possibility of some interest there, but Johnson's Marsh hosted the usual Green Sandpiper and Snipe. Scalby Lodge Pond was devoid of waders, although 8 Teal were new in. By lunchtime we went our separate ways and I headed for Wykeham South Lake hoping I might find a Black Tern. However, a few minutes after my arrival a text arrived informing me of a Greenish Warbler on the castle, so it wasn't long before I was hurriedly heading back into town and cursing the tractor driving farmers as I went! Fortunately the bird was showing almost immediately on arrival and it performed nicely over the next hour or so. As is fairly usual on this blog, these aren't especially brilliant images, but you get the idea!

Greenish Warbler 

With very little evidence of many common migrants on the castle either, it just goes to show that even if there appears to be little about, if the wind is in the right direction then you just gotta keep plugging away.

Evening news from Nick, that a Pied Flycatcher had at last been found at Long Nab inspired me to head to the ringing site this morning. A switch to moderate SW winds meant I was also hoping for a little bit of vis mig. Sure enough a trickle of Swallows were moving south, whilst Yellow Wagtails and a few Meadow Pipits were also on the move. However, just 15 minutes after my arrival I was amazed to see an Ortolan Bunting arrive from the north, calling repeatedly whilst circling the ringing site and dropping into the bushes for a minute or so before flying off to the south and calling several more times as it did so. This is the first Ortolan I have found in the UK since three in the space of a couple of weeks in 1996 (one in Kent, two on Scilly), so very welcome indeed. However, of greater significance is that this species remains amazingly rare in the Scarborough area and this bird constitutes just the third record for the area and the first since 1977! The two previous records were as follows.

A male at Scalby Beck on 5th-6th May 1973 (R H Appleby, B Cockerill)
A male at Cloughton on 10th October 1977 (J Webb).

With less encouraging winds forecast in the next few days I imagine things will quieten down, but I sure can't help feeling what next?!?