Baywatch

Two distant red-throated divers. An abundant wintering bird along the Yorkshire coast.  

The Yorkshire coastline is something of a hidden gem during the winter, despite the autumn exodus of the seabird colonies, the spectacle does not stop. The bays, harbours, outcrops, reefs and rocks become alive with all manner of coastal birds from Ducks and Divers to Grebes and Gulls. It always pays to take a scope and spend an extra couple of minutes scanning the bay, when by the sea. Today we had a pleasant find with a rather distant red-necked grebe in Filey bay amongst the usual shags, red throated divers, great crested grebes and cormorants. Not to mention plenty of gannets and guillemots and a pair each of teal and gadwall flying past.

 

 A even more distant red-necked grebe, a nice addition to the year list. 

Red necked grebe is a nice addition to the pan list, along with the recent Slavonian grebe which was at Filey dams. Red necked grebes are a scarce winter visitor to our coasts and have a core breeding range in Eastern Europe. This bird briefly associated with a great crested grebe and showed a slightly smaller, thicker necked, compact silhouette in comparison. Unfortunately it was in the sun at quite long range so the photograph is not ideal, but still shows enough detail to clinch it i.e. dark neck, poor contrast between cap and cheek, dark upper neck, pale throat and yellow bill base. This bird is starting to show signs of breeding plumage.     

Purple Sandpiper.

Perhaps one of the highlights and certainly worth its one blog post, are the numerous purple sandpipers which dart around your feet as you watch the sea. These small coastal waders are a rocky shore specialist and frequently found along Yorkshires rocky coast. A feature of purple sandpiper wintering habitat is safe location to roost above the high tide mark, usually on raised rocky ground. Foraging occurs within the littoral zone, the abundance of prey in this area needs to be high to retain wintering birds. Prey typically consists of small molluscs and crustaceans. Having a coastal element to the recording area allows a fantastic opportunity to raise our species lists for the YETI challenge. 

Great crested grebes are found in good numbers along the coast, especially in sheltered bays where fishing is good. 

Like the purple sandpiper, turnstones are abundant along stretches of our coastline, they like to feed on small invertebrates but will also feed on dead fish and crabs. 

Numbers of guillemots are increasing along the coast, it wont be long now until the breeding season is underway.