May 2021 - East Coast Rarities

Northern Mockingbird - Newbiggin-by-the-Sea, May 2021

Thrush Nightingale, Spurn Point, May '21:

Eastern Subalpine Warbler, Spurn Point, May '21:

Long-tailed Skua in Sheffield - March 2021

Some images of the superb adult Long-tailed Skua that stayed a few days locally after stormy westerlies in March 2021,

Weekend Double - October 2020

In October 2020 I was at the end of a family short break in Norfolk.  On the final day we had just ordered breakfast in a very busy Burnham Deepdale cafe when, not really in birding mode, I glanced at my phone for the first time in the day and suddenly realised that chaos was unfolding a few miles down the road at Stiffkey where a Rufous Bush Robin had been found an hour or so earlier.

What seemed like the longest wait ever for the breakfast to be served, followed by the quickest eating of a full breakfast ever, I was dumped at the end of the road to run onto the Saltmarsh and joined several hundred people already gathered enjoying the presence of this mega rarity.  It provided decent views too as it moved around a patch of Suaeda for most of the morning!

After a long drive home the next morning I was off again, pre-dawn in hope that the lingering Taiga flycatcher was still present at South Shields, County Durham.  It was actually showing really well from first light, although as most birds are, it was overshadowed in looks if not rarity value by the Pallas's Warbler at the same location.

Thanks for looking!