A Trip to Bempton Cliffs & Flamborough

                                   BEMPTON CLIFFS  &  FLAMBOROUGH AREA

                                                         2nd October 2024

                                                                    

Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler.

News broke of a confirmed Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler on the 27th September at Bempton Cliffs in Yorkshire whilst i was was still on Shetland !!

We left Shetland on the overnight ferry to Aberdeen on the 28th but worked out we wouldn't have time regrettably to twitch the PLLW on the way home on the Sunday. 

The PLLW was still present Monday & Tuesday and the weather overnight was cloudy & rain both nights with the weather clearing on the Wednesday.

Thankfully i was offered a lift on the Tuesday and joined Steve .C. , JR & RR leaving early hours Wednesday morning.

There was no news on the PLLW until approx 8am and you could feel the sense of relief in the car , we duly arrived on site fearing how difficult it was going to be having heard stories of it being very elusive & some birders waiting 5 + hours to see it, you get the picture...Lol

Pale pinkish coloured legs.

Well we all connected with this incredible bird , (only the 2nd ever record for the UK and the first live record at that to) within 15 minutes of us arriving on site.

It was very active and with patience i managed to see the PLLW really well and even heard it call several times.

Photography was another challenge altogether but i manged a few record shots.

Long supercillium.

Pale-Legged Leaf Warbler.

Having seen & heard  this great bird very well the pressure was off and i could really enjoy watching it forage through the hedgerow, A really great find  by local birder Andrew Hood plus another very well organised twitch by Bempton Cliffs staff.

FLAMBOROUGH HEAD : Holms Gut

Red Breasted Flycatcher.

From Bempton Cliffs we headed to Flamborough Head and had superb views of 2 Red Breasted Flycatchers  at Holm's Gut.

Nice view of it's tail pattern

Red Breasted Flycatcher.

THORNWICK  BAY

Olive Backed Pipit.

Whilst we were checking out another area for migrants news broke of an Olive Backed Pipit showing well at Thornwick Bay which was only about 10 minutes away, so without haste we headed there and was soon enjoying some point blank views of this cracking looking bird.

Here are a small selection of photos i took.

Olive Backed Pipit.

We watched this bird for quite some time enjoying watch it forage among all the dead leaves often almost looking invisible at times.

OLD FALL PLANTATION

Yellow-Browed Warbler.

We had a walk to the Old Fall Plantation where SC & JR found 2 Yellow Browed Warblers & a Common Redstart.

There were lot's of Goldcrests pretty much at every site we went to & there must of been at least 20 here.

Merlin, Pied Flycatcher & Ring Ouzel were also seen by our Group.

Yellow-Browed Warbler

FLAMBOROUGH : Seawatch

We spent the last hour looking out at sea and added a close in Manx Shearwater to our days totals plus several Gannets, Kittiwakes & 2 Red throated Divers.

A really great days birding in great company and a special thank you to Steve.C. for the lift and doing all the driving.