We’re having a long weekend in Yorkshire this weekend, and autumn migration is starting.
It’s a long time since I had two lifers in a day in the UK, even though there have been two chances (Caspian Tern but no Albatross last year, and Eleonora’s Falcon but no Sardinian Warbler early on this year), so the possibility of the Cape Gull on the way up north and the Red-tailed Shrike was too much to resist. That hope died almost the moment we decided to come up north, when the Cape Gull went missing, but the Shrike, which was a world lifer and a smart bird, and so much more interesting than the gull, hung around and gave superb views yesterday afternoon.
After a night in a B&B where I think the name Galtry flagged up that they needed to serve huge quantities of food (good food at that) we went to Flamborough this morning and got a second lifer in two days: a long overdue Icterine Warbler, that never showed as close as the Shrike, but was very welcome.