2 Yorkshire firsts - White Tailed Lapwing & Green Warbler, and some decent passage migrants through Fangfoss Park.

Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, E.Yorks, 01/09/21

So far the first half of September has produced some cracking good birds for me. A couple of  'lifers'  (both firsts for Yorkshire) and a clutch of decent passage migrants on my local patch around Fangfoss Park.

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, E.Yorks, 01/09/21

In birdwatching / twitching language the WT Lapwing is a proper 'MEGA RARITY' but if truth be told I got more of a thrill finding my own Whinchat dropping in on my own little patch of Yorkshire. A predominantly upland breeding bird and in Yorkshire their strongholds are in the North Yorks Moors and Pennine areas, but they're a red listed bird in the UK as a whole due to a population crash over the past couple of decades. 

I'd been noticing a series of connected grassy fields the local farmer has left fallow this year, fields with vast swathes of some kind of Hawkweed and other tall plant species, and thinking 'that looks good habitat for a Stonechat or two'. 2 days later in the late evening gloom I did indeed have a Stonechat plus another chat I struggled to identify. The next morning it revealed itself to be juv Whinchat, only my second record for around here. Always a bit distant and being in the middle of a field tricky to approach, but I managed some decent shots as it flitted from the tops of the vegetation.

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

Juv Whinchat, Fangfoss Park, 01/09/21

It might be a bit of scruffy youngster but always good to have something out of the ordinary and it sparked a good couple of weeks around here as for migrant birds with a female / juv Redstart and a Stonechat the previous evening, single Spotted Flycatchers on the 3rd & 14th Sept, a Lesser Whitethroat on the 4th and then 2 others on the 6th, 7 Blackcaps on the 6th, plenty of  Chiffchaffs and a fantastic flock of 15 Yellow Wagtails on the same day in recently cut fields. 

Yellow Wagtail, Fangfoss Park, 06/09/21

And so to the White Tailed Lapwing - or White Tailed Plover according to which classification you use! The bird had been present for some days by the time I had a chance to pop down to the Humber but such was the draw of this bird ( a 1st for Yorkshire and only the 7th ever record for mainland UK) I still had to squeeze myself into the Xerox Hide at RSPB Blacktoft Sands for some great views of this rare visitor from central Asia.

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

Despite the above pics, the bird was not an active bird during the 2 hrs or so I was there, making only a couple of feeding forays either side of some extended sleeping - probably bewildered at finding itself deep in Humber mud rather than some inland marsh in Iraq! 

Goldfinches, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

A nice big charm of Goldfinches entertained whilst waiting for the plover to wake up, as did plenty of other passage wading birds including Ruff, Green Sandpiper and Black Tailed Godwit, a Water Rail and several Bearded Tits. 

It never flew during the time I was there - shame, I was hoping for some 'in flight' pics, but it did do a spot of stretching and flapping showing off those broad white wing bars!

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

White Tailed Lapwing, Blacktoft Sands, 01/09/21

September rarely fails to deliver its fair share of rare and scarce birds to the Yorkshire coast and you never know what might turn up next, but a wee warbler caught & ringed at the cliffside dell at Buckton on the 9th surpassed even the WT Lapwing and attracted even bigger crowds of eager twitchers hoping to catch a glimpse of an extremely rare Green Warbler. 

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorks, 13/09/21.  Picture credit - Tony Dixon.

Green Warbler, Buckton, East Yorks, 13/09/21. Picture credit - Tony Dixon.

Another bird normally to be found in central Asia (was it driven here by the same weather system as the WT Lapwing?) this is another 1st for Yorkshire and only the 2nd ever in mainland Britain. No wonder I rubbing shoulders with over 200 birders all straining for a glimpse of what proved to be a very shy and retiring leaf warbler. A glimpse is all I managed but enough to see the distinctive wing bar.