Great Northern Diver

Its been along time coming!! Out of the four species of diver in Britain and Europe I have only managed to photograph Red-throated Diver and Black-throated Diver, so when I heard that a Great Northern Diver was reported in my local harbour, I just had to get down there and hope to see if I could get some decent images.

The weather conditions were quite grim, grey sky, slightly foggy and a slight drizzle and to top things off the bird had left the harbour and was now fishing in the middle of the South Bay. So I did what a wildlife photographer had to do and just wait, hope and pray that the Diver would eventually get close for a decent picture.

After getting very cold and quite damp I noticed that the Great Northern Diver was slowly making its way back towards the harbour and after about another 10 minutes I could not believe my luck, there it was just 5 feet in front of my lens and the rest is just history - bring on the White-billed!

Long-tailed Duck

Autumn is my favourite time of year for me, when the weather changes and we start to get the cold fresh weather fronts that take us in to the Winter months. Its also the time of year for me to start patrolling around Scarborough Harbour looking to find something that might have been blown off course or may be taking shelter from the bad weather. So I was very happy when I found the above female winter Long-tailed Duck feeding in the main Harbour area. 

More Meds

The Med's are back in numbers! At Holbeck today I had 4 adult winters and 1 first winter Mediterranean Gulls, previous to these sightings there has been a couple of 2nd winter birds, so things are looking up again this Autumn with the presence of the Med's back at Holbeck.

If you are thinking of trying to photography these birds, a word of advice - bring some bread!! Throw the bread on to the grass, wait a few minutes and the Black Headed Gulls will appear, soon followed by the Med's.

Hungry Med

The Mediterranean Gulls have started to visit regularly again at Holbeck Car Park. The above individual was the only bird showing that day, but was very obliging and was patrolling the verges of the car park picking up worms.

Rose Coloured Starling

Another 1st for me, the Rose Coloured Starling. Alright its not an awesome adult male, but what a great bird. I have thrown one image of a common Starling in with the Rose-coloured above for comparison. Look at the pale yellowish bill base compared to the common Starling and how the bill is shorter and more blunt looking.

This juvenile Rose-coloured Starling is a lot more pale than a juvenile Starling, but has much darker wing markings. Two new birds in two days, who knows what might happen next, its been a great week for migrants on the east coast.

Brown Shrike

What a MEGA bird! The Brown Shrike seen recently at Flamborough Head is only the 5th recorded in the UK and a first for Yorkshire and a lifer for me. The other sightings were: 1985 - Shetland, 2000 Shetland, 2001 Scilly's and 2004 Shetland.

As you can see from the images above the bird was hanging around with a Red Backed Shrike, and both birds were very distant, ok through a scope, but very hard to capture a decent image through the DSLR. Also reported at Flamborough today: Red Breasted Flycatcher, Yellow Browed Warbler, Lapland Bunting and Long Tailed Skua.