East Yorkshire- 29.9.24

Pale-legged Leaf Warbler. Photo courtesy of Damian Money

The winds had been blowing from far to the east and so birders were hoping for something stupidly rare being blown to our shores. On the 25th Andy Hood found a wing barred warbler at Bempton Cliffs RSPB that he couldn’t put a name to even with a strange call. On the 27th it was sound recorded and identified as Britain’s 2nd Pale-legged Leaf Warbler! The first had been found dead on St.Agnes,Scilly in 2016 after it’d flown into a window and identified from DNA. Back in 2012 a bird was seen in a garden on Portland,Dorset but was identified to species as Sakhalin Leaf Warbler couldn’t be ruled out. 

I could go Saturday which was probably just as well as the crowds looked horrendous even tho everyone got acceptable views in the end so plans were hatched to team up with the Moreton brothers. 

We left early and despite me coming off a junction early and adding 20 minutes to the journey we arrived just after 7.30am and met Dave Woodhouse who had seen it the previous day and told us it’s favoured areas. The bird could be heard giving a strange Bullfinch like call and every so often would sit in full view briefly. George and Matt both had these good views but I managed to miss them. Eventually after an hour or so I finally laid eyes on my first ever PALE-LEGGED LEAF WARBLER deep in a Hawthorn bush and despite the dark conditions you could see all its salient features. As soon as it moved on eyes moved upwards as my first Yellow-browed Warbler of the year showed well in the tree above. Tree Sparrows were also nice to see seeing as they’re now pretty much extinct in Herts.

Siberian Stonechat

Happy with seeing the mega we then walked south along the coast path for about 30 minutes where we searched for George’s second lifer of the morning. We scanned the area it’d been in the previous day to no avail so decided to head back only for us to spot 2 birds the other side of the large mound. The first bird was a year tick Whinchat and the second a nice Siberian Stonechat that started preening showing off its peach coloured rump. 2 ticks down for George with 1 more to go. 

Icterine Warbler

We then headed to Flamborough Head. We parked up opposite the Viking Pub and walked to the nearby sewage works. Here we immediately got onto the Icterine Warbler in the nearest shrubs. George’s third tick of the day to which I said it was disgraceful to tick that after the Pale-legged! Another Yellow-browed Warbler was heard calling in nearby trees and the my first Red-breasted Flycatcher since 2020 flew into the same shrubs as the Icky. 

Another great days birding in East Yorkshire. Just a shame it’s not a bit closer to home!