Saturday in reverse

Me and Andy were out again on Bank Holiday Monday and decided to give the Marsh Warbler at Blacktoft Sands another go, it seemed to perform better during the mornings and sure enough within half an hour of us getting there it was up singing and showing really well perching on the tall grass stems in its favoured area although just a bit further away than I would have liked for the camera, a quick look from Singleton Hide found a drake Garganey, a couple of Little Egrets and the usual Marsh Harriers flying around. We then headed off for Flamborough and decided to have another look at the Roller en route as it was still present, I was hoping  to get some better pics in the brighter conditions but it was not to be, after initially tucking itself into the grassy edge of the field for almost an hour when it became active again it flew out into the middle of the field and remained distant for the rest of the time we were there. Mid afternoon we carried on to Flamborough which was slow going, an accident had closed the A165 and we had to divert through a gridlocked Burton Agnes but after eventually getting there we soon located the superb male Red Backed Shrike found yesterday and still present in the Gorse Field below the car park, I spent quite some time trying to get some photos of this bird but it was in an awkward position and the couple of times I got it in my sights the light wasn’t very good, we also had the bonus of a Great Skua flying close in past the headland.

Happy after being fed by us in the car park

tucked in the grassy edge

flying off into the middle of the field

a Lesser Whitethroat singing from the top of a bush