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| The bay at Filey where Mark has witnessed many memorable birds (photo: Events Yorkshire via Wikimedia Commons) |
THE show must go on . . .
Despite a road prang which left his 'scope and laptop computer "crushed to a pulp", ace Yorkshire birder Mark Pearson determined to press ahead with a talk to the February meeting of Grimsby RSPB.
His intended presentation was entitled Champions of The Flyway, but with much of its content lost on his computer's smashed hard drive, his replacement topic was: Filey International - Arrivals and Departures on the North Yorkshire Coast.
This proved to be truly captivating and inspirational, demonstrating that you don't have to travel to the frozen Antarctic or the Amazon jungle to see awe-inspiring birds.
Especially at times of migration, rich rewards can be reaped just a mile or so from home, in his case at the north end of Filey, the small seaside town which has mostly been unsung since the closure in the 1980s of Billy Butlin's popular holiday camp.
Mark, a professional bird guide and contributor to publications such as Birdwatch and Birdwatching, is also a superb photographer.
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Mark - informative and amusing speaker
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The audience of 50 or so was treated to a mesmerising array of such gem species as Waxwing, Goldcrest, Redstart, Nightjar Red-backed Shrike, Iceland Gull, Temminck's Stint, Surf Scoter, Grey Phalarope, Purple Sandpiper and a Knot crouching to make itself invisible to an overhead Peregrine.
Mark used the meeting to offer a belated and amusing apology to the Filey Prom's many strollers whom he scattered, back on December 3, 2013, as he sprinted to catch a photograph of a Brunnich's Guillemot (the first recorded Yorkshire sighting) before it swam far out to sea.
Often the pictures were in close-up because, though much of Filey is what he described as "sub-optimal habitat" for many migrants, they sometimes touch down within yards, or even feet, of observers such as him because it may be "the only port in a storm" for an exhausted bird seeking a brief breather and a peck or two to eat.
But the Yorkshireman also peppered his presentation with shots in which birds were just barely identifiable specks which is, of course, just how we often see them when out in field and forest, mountain and wetland.
Indeed, one of his star pictures - and a talking point during the interval of the meeting - was of a Pallas Leaf Warbler (famously once described as a "seven-striped sprite" by the late D.I.M.Wallace) which was almost invisible so well was it camouflaged amidst autumn foliage.
The speaker's focus was on the migration that occurs during 'autumn', a season which, for any dedicated birder, starts at the end of June when the first shorebirds, such as Dunlin and Sanderling (often in stunning summer plumage), arrive from their breeding grounds in the north of Europe and beyond.
Later in the season, the weather may cool down, but the birding heats up, culminating in December when unusual diver, duck and and gull species put in an appearance, sometimes staying for several weeks (or months) and sometimes only for a day or two (or less).
Like all devotees, Mark is on the look-out for birds every minute of every waking hour (and also, quite possibly, while he is asleep).
But he revealed that he is always on particularly high alert in the last week of October and the first fortnight of November when he never ceases to be thrilled by the sight and sound of parties of overhead Whooper Swans and individual Short-eared Owls and Woodcocks, sometimes dodging high waves as they fly in over the North Sea from the continent.
From time to time, migrants that have been ringed turn up at Filey - most notably a Redpoll that had been trapped on island off the Norwegian Coast at about noon on one day, then re-caught at 8am the following day.
Recalled Mark: "There had been a strong north-easterly wind that night, and the bird obviously decided it was game-on and to go for it."
Another curiosity was a Snow Bunting which was, at first, understandably assumed to have flown in with a 40-strong flock of fellow-buntings from northern climes, but in fact had been ringed in western France.
The likelihood was that, far from migrating south, it was returning north having over-wintered on the other side of The Channel.
Helpfully, the speaker provided identification pointers - for instance shape of head and width of bill - in how to differentiate two superficially similar species, Cormorant and Shag.
He also had an amusing anecdote about his childhood when often the family home also served as a rehabilitation centre for stricken birds with injured gannets accommodated in the bedrooms and puffins in the bathroom.
"I remember the days well," he chuckled. "It was like being in Paradise.”
Mark also had a word for 'Albie', the super-rare Black-browed Albatross that spent much of the summers of 2020, 2021 and 2022 at nearby Bempton and Flamborough but occasionally wandered to the waters off Filey.
"This magnificent bird was commonly said to have been either 'lost' or 'in the wrong place'," said Mark. "But is that necessarily so?
"Might it have been a case where an outlier species was exploring a new migration path?
"Nature sometimes has a way of throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks."
As further examples of such a phenomenon, he cited Blackcaps that have now started over-wintering in Britain and Yellow-browed Warblers, once rare visitors from Russia that are now seen and heard in ever increasing numbers within our shores during October.
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| Male blackcap - this bird has been over-wintering in a garden not far from where Mark was giving his talk |
Mark acknowledged that its location on the coast gave Filey something of an advantage in attracting passing migrants, but he noted that 'birding patches' everywhere in Britain have their own individual capacity to do likewise.
Most of his talk's audience live close to the coast, and he remarked that Lincolnshire was "an under-watched county".
What better incentive to his listeners to rise early next morning, grab their binoculars and head out and about!
* Mark has his own website: Mark James Pearson and is tour guide for the company, Yorkshire Coast Nature Yorkshire Coast Nature - Nature Tours, Workshops & Gallery
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