Anything for the weekend Sir? Yorkshire for a King Eider and a Yankee Wigeon, 27th April 2008.

aren't rares and seabirds brill ant!!


Myself and John, left Leicester at around 6.30am to get to Rother Valley CP, near Sheffield just after 7.30 am to look for a Yankee Wigeon.

John then phoned Mark Reeder (one of the Drunkbirders crew!), who was still in bed were the best place to see the American Wigeon he had found a couple of days previously. He told John that the best place was the main lake or the far bank, were the bird had been seen the previous day.
As we checked out the main lake, there was no sign of the Wigeon, so we walked down the track to the far bank, but again there was no sign of the bird in the surrounding area.
Walking slowly back up the track I saw a Wigeon species flying and landing on to the main lake. It was the American Wigeon!

Over the next hour, initially the wigeon wasn't playing ball, but after twenty minutes, the Wigeon flew over to the near bank, and give excellent views, to which John got some decent shots of the bird.
By this time, the main target of day, a male King Eider at Flamborough Head had been re found, so we made tracks to Bridlington.

Calling into McDonald's at Goole for some breakfast, we soon finished our Hash Browns, Bacon Rolls and Coffee and drove on to Flamborough for the Eider.(yes I know I'm giving money to the capitalist corporation, but there do do a great breakfast!)
Arriving at South Landing at Flamborough Head, we were told by a couple of birders, that the King Eider had been relocated showing off the Lighthouse, so we drove to the Lighthouse, only to be told that the Eider was now showing from North Landing!
Driving over to North Landing, we finally soon picked up the Eider distantly off the headland.
Although it was quite misty over the sea, we did take a few distant record digiscope shots of this splendid duck.
Other sightings in this area included good numbers of Puffins, Razorbills,Guillemots and the usual seabirds associated with Flamborough Head.
Moving on to Bempton Cliffs RSPB, as usual the lovely smell of guano greeted us as we walked down to the cliffs.
Like at Flamborough, good numbers of seabirds were showing on the cliffs, although there was more Puffins at Flamborough head.
Over the next hour we took a number of photos of the seabirds.

From Bempton, our final destination of day was Swine Moor, near Beverley to look for a Lesser Yellowlegs which had been present for a few days.
Parking by the roadside opposite the flooded fields, we soon had seen a Wood Sandpiper, a couple of Garganeys, and a bird which looked very much like a Lesser Yellowlegs (it was reported later as a Greenshank via the pager services!?).
Other sightings in the area, included two nice looking White Wagtails, a single Yellow Wagtail and a Greenshank.
Happy with a good day's birding and a number of year ticks we finally called it a day, and drove back home to Leicester.

Thanks to John for his photo of the Yankee Wigeon in this post.