A busy first two days saw Ringing and Migration Week getting off to a flyer, with 300 birds ringed over the weekend, including three Woodcocks, two Mealy Redpolls and a Yellow-browed Warbler among big numbers of thrushes (especially Redwings), Robins and finches.
Yellow-browed Warbler (Will Scott)
The weekend’s guided walks were equally blessed with migrants, with Carr Naze in classic ‘runway’ mode in the morning and Filey’s fourth record of Great White Egret low over the Dams in the afternoon yesterday; as if to reward the ringing team for their sterling efforts, the same bird looped back from its southbound journey, over Carr Naze and staged several low fly-bys over the Top Scrub a little later (MJP, SV, MR et al.).
Goldcrest, Carr Naze (Mark Pearson)
With ideal conditions delivering many thousands of birds from over the North Sea, incoming migration has been exceptional, particularly yesterday (15th); combined overhead / grounded tallies (just from the northern coastal area) included a Woodlark (MJP, JP), 3,700 Redwings, 630 Song Thrushes, 450 Fieldfares, 18 Mistle Thrushes, 260 Blackbirds, 230 Siskins (including 80 at the Dams), 85 Redpolls (including at least four Mealies), 125 Bramblings (including 45 in Church Ravine and 30 at the Dams), 370 Skylarks, 12 Woodcock, 65 Robins, 90 Goldcrests, six Yellow-browed Warblers and a Ring Ouzel.
Great White Egret, Filey Dams ( Mark Pearson)
Today was busy but without hitting the same heights in the northern coastal area, with dedicated counting at the Gap instead providing the more comprehensive vismig totals: these included (all south) the year’s first Whooper Swan, six Goosanders, 54 alba Wagtails, 91 Tree Sparrows, 200 Siskins, 54 Redpolls, 42 Reed, one Snow and one Lapland Bunting (KC).