Today dawned fine and bright in East Yorkshire, a real bonus after quite a long
period of wet and windy weather. Our
daughter was home for a few days holiday, so, having a lunch appointment for an
early celebration for her birthday, we decided to head for the beach at
Fraisthorpe to give the dog a good run.
As usual, even a non-birding outing necessitated the carrying of binoculars
and an assortment of cameras!
We arrived at the beach side car park at about 0915 and walked towards Barmston, attempting to keep Symphony, our cocker spaniel/golden retriever cross from rescuing a dead rabbit, a dead seabird of unknown species (yes that decayed) and from digging up a dead fish.
Birds seen as we walked included a pair of Great Crested Grebe on the sea, several Red Throated Divers, a small group of Sanderling as well as the usual expected species for the habitat. 2 Whooper Swans flew north.
After a good walk, refreshments were in order, in the form of tea, coffee and cakes from The Cow Shed Café situated just off the beach at Fraisthorpe. Replete we returned to the car and began the slow drive along the single- track road back to the village.
After about 800 metres we noticed what we believed to be a Common Kestrel perched in a bush on the right- hand side of the road Opening the driver’s door window, Heather inched the car forward, bringing it briefly to a stand, allowing me to capture several images of the bird. After a few seconds it few to a nearby bush, but perched higher, meaning the angle was too acute to obtain any more images from inside the car. We commented however, on how close we had been to the bird. My intention was to crop features from the Kestrel for all to enjoy.
I thought nothing more about the images until late in the afternoon, when as is usual, I looked at all the photos that I had taken, predominantly family images and a series of the dog running towards the camera, (remember – this wasn’t a bird watching trip!), and uploading the images to social media.
John Judge (@Draycote Birder) was the first to comment, stating that the bird had pale claws, reminiscent of a probable Lesser Kestrel, and a real rarity in the UK. Social media immediately sprung to life, expressing many and varied comments about the bird’s identity. My thanks must go to John, a bird watching colleague from our many years of living in Rugby.
There follows an interesting and informative experience and I’m grateful for all the input from other birders. The debate is still continuing on social media (Twitter and Facebook) and on BirdForum.
As would be expected, birders headed to Fraisethorpe from early doors the next day with some excellent flight images being recorded.
An excellent learning paper is offered by raptor expert, Jack Ashton-Booth and is published as follows Click HERE
Debate on Birdforum can be found Click HERE
Finally, in the words of my daughter "It's only a bird"!
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