EAST YORKSHIRE

HIGHLIGHTS: A Buff-breasted Sandpiper visited Blacktoft Sands (4th). FLAMBOROUGH: There was a Honey Buzzard and two Yellow-legged Gulls (1st), three Balearic Shearwaters (3rd), Pomarine Skuas (4th and 8th), a Little Egret (7th), Long-tailed Skua (10th), three Mediterranean Gulls (13th), a Red-backed Shrike (15th), Caspian Gull (19th), Balearic Shearwater (21st), a Great Shearwater and three Pomarine Skuas (25th), a Long-tailed Skua and

three Balearic Shearwaters (26th), a Sabine’s Gull (30th) and two Velvet Scoters (31st). HORNSEA MERE: There were Med Gulls (1st & 27th), a Spoonbill (3rd), Yellow-legged Gull (15th), Caspian Gull (18th), Black-necked Grebe (24th), two Great White Egrets (25th), four Garganeys, 10 Little Egrets, a Sabine’s Gull and Balearic Shearwater (23rd), a Red-necked Grebe (25th), a Long-tailed Skua and Grey Phalarope (26th), 2 Roseate Terns (28th) and Red-necked Grebe plus Balearic Shearwater (31st). SPURN: A Woodchat Shrike was seen (29th). There was a Citrine Wagtail (31st). Seawatching produced a Long-tailed Skua, two Pomarine Skuas, a handful of Sooty Shearwaters, and maxima of 10,700 Common Terns, 60 Arctic Terns, 19 Black Terns and eight Roseate Terns. Two Cranes stopped off (4th). Spoonbills were seen twice. Ospreys flew south (18th and 22nd). A Corncrake (31st) was found dead next day, having probably hit overhead wires. Three Short-eared Owls and a Long-eared Owl were seen regularly. There were 1,500 Shelducks on the Humber late in the month, when 342 Teal and three Garganeys were at Kilnsea Wetlands. The latter site also logged a Pectoral Sandpiper (12th), 1,000 Redshanks, 19 Greenshanks, six Curlew Sandpipers, two Wood Sandpipers, a Little Stint and Spotted Redshank. A Purple Sandpiper was on the Humber (from 13th). An unseasonal Temminck’s Stint was found (28th). Birds moving south included 149 Whimbrels (2nd), and 5,000 Swallows plus 104 Sand Martins (22nd). A fall (3rd) included 41 Pied Flycatchers, five Spotted Flycatchers and several Wood Warblers. Willow Warblers peaked at 150 mid-month. A second fall late on saw 51 Whinchats, 28 Pied Flycatchers, three Icterine Warblers, two Red-backed Shrikes, a Barred Warbler, Common Rosefinch and a Fieldfare. OTHER SITES: Blacktoft Sands had a Crane (20th), four Garganeys (26th), a Red-necked Phalarope plus Temminck’s Stint (31st), and a Great White Egret. Two Cranes were at West Carlton (from 9th). A Long-tailed Skua and Pomarine Skua were off Grimston (25th). A Great White Egret was near Hollym (from 25th). Tophill Low attracted a Great White Egret (to 12th) and four Garganeys (27th). North Cave Wetlands had a Black-necked Grebe (25th) and Bittern (24th). Twenty Little Egrets were noted. A Dotterel flew over Bempton (30th), with an Ortolan Bunting there (23rd) and Little Egret (27th). Ian Marshall (01482 627 446) and John Hewitt (07952 293 060)