East Coast jaunt

I took a jaunt along the East Coast today and had originally planned to start at Scarborough then head to Hornsea but on seeing the weather forecast of high winds in the afternoon I thought it might be better to do it the other way round, it worked well for me as the Grey Phalarope at the Mere was just off the end of Kirkholme Point first thing flying off towards Swan Island some 15 mins later and the two Great White Egrets were feeding in the bottom corner, them flying off to the top end around the same time, a scan round found the recent female Velvet Scoter and Long Tailed Duck although they were more distant, also a flock of 30/40 Barnacle Geese were flying around and although they maybe of dubious origin they still looked good. Late morning I moved up to Barmston but it was relatively quiet there, no sign of the recent Kumlein’s Gull, I also visited nearby Fraisthorpe where I got close to some Sanderling on the beach, it was then on to Filey for a late lunch after which I made a scan of the Bay, it had got pretty windy by this time and although I managed to pick out a few Eiders off the Brig the wind made using the scope virtually impossible. I spent the rest of the afternoon at Scarborough Harbour where the juv Great Northern Diver took a bit of finding but once found showed well, all in all not a bad day.

lovely little bird, performed well early on

noticed this fella flying to the bottom corner where it joined one that was already there

five mins later they both flew off towards the top end

Black

and White

Oycs at Fraisthorpe

and some close encounters with these

on the run

this image is uncropped

always close encounters with these at Scarborough

please sir can you spare some scraps

feeding well on Crabs