Scarborough Weekend

During February, with fewer people going to Spurn for the autumn, there is an annual Spurn night out in Scarborough for people to see friends that they might not have seen for some time. Besides the drinking there were some good birds to be seen over the weekend too. 

On the Saturday afternoon when I arrived I headed off to the harbor to look at the wintering Great Northern Diver and Black Necked Grebes. They were both showing extremely well, giving crippling views to be honest. Guillemot and Rock Pipit also made a nice collection in what was a very busy harbor setting. 

The morning after we headed up on to the tops to feed Mediterranean Gulls and scan over the bay. Whilst scanning we were directed to a couple of Long-tailed Ducks in with a flock of Common Scoter. The Mediterranean Gulls showed extremely well, readily coming down to the bread we were throwing for them. In the end we probably had around 10 birds of all different ages.

In the afternoon we headed off to Wykeham to see if I could life-tick goshawk. I narrowly missed one, but we did get crippling views of Crossbill ripping apart pine cones right in front of us. A cracking end to the weekend. 

-Great Northern Diver

-Black-necked Grebe

-Long-tailed Duck with Common Scoter

-Mediterranean Gull

-Crossbill

Species List:

Scarborough: Shag, Common Scoter, Long-tailed Duck, Black-necked Grebe, Cormorant, Fulmar, Great-northern Diver, Red-throated Diver, Herring Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Guillemot, Rock Pipit, Turnstone, Jackdaw, Carrion Crow, Mediterranean Gull, Black-headed Gull, Bullfinch, Robin, Wren, Dunnock,

Wykeham Forest: Siskin, Crossbill, Chaffinch, Pheasant, Bullfinch, Woodpigeon, Golden Plover,