We couldn't make the trip yesterday but set off this morning hoping the Bunting would stick for us although we were still smarting from the previous dip on the Brown Shrike a few weeks ago. As luck would have it we had positive news come through around 7am which helped us press on with the four hour journey arriving at Flamborough head around 9am. There were around a hundred birders on site and some had seen the bird whilst some missed it so we set about relocating it and before long Jim had picked out a very distant yellow blob in the hedgerow at the far end of the fields. After checking it to rule out Yellowhammer we put up the shout and the march along the footpath started. We got to within a few metres of the hedge row and managed to get really good scope views and a couple of record shots.
 |
| Black-headed Bunting |
 |
| Black-headed Bunting |
 |
| Black-headed Bunting |
 |
| The Black-headed Bunting twitch |
The Lifer was in the bag so we drove down to the Lighthouse car park and walked over to the golf course where about forty birders had created a ring around the willows hoping the Subalpine Warbler would show and after about an hour it did. Lesser Whitethroat, Whitethroat, Chiffchaff, Blackcap and lots of Tree Sparrow kept us busy as we scanned the bushes but we did see the target and I think everybody got on it eventually.
 |
| The Subalpine Warbler twitch |
 |
| Waiting for the warbler to show |
We broke the journey home with an hour at Welbeck watchpoint but failed to find any Honey Buzzards.
A nice twitch in good company and a warm welcome given by the locals who seemed more than happy to share their patch for the day.
Year list now 259
Life list now 403
ps.. Black-headed Bunting has now been removed from my dipped list after I missed one in Norfolk previously. A difficult bird with chances to twitch on the mainland few and far between.
No comments:
Post a Comment