One Day

Having struggled to find our peak form in Cambridgeshire big days, we needed a break from trying to crack that particular egg.  I had been hoping to have a go at the Yorkshire big day record with a team of mates.  The plan came together over a year and at midnight on 11th May I was joined by Mark Hawkes, Jono Leadley and Rich Baines heading out on an epic days birding around Yorkshire.  We were planned with great precision around times to ensure that we could get all the dead certs without running out of light and maximise our chances of scoring as many of the trickier species as possible.  A write up of the day can be found on Birdguides here

https://www.birdguides.com/articles/yorkshire-record-breakers-an-epic-may-day/

Personal highlights were many but being up on the Moors at dawn within the wild soundscape of wader and Red Grouse song will take some beating.

The well rehearsed hour of strategic teamwork on Filey Brigg pulling great birds out of the bag every five minutes was thrilling and the bonus of connecting with a top class rarity, Collared Flycatcher, en-route at Easington certainly ticked the box.

We finished the day on 156, a new Yorkshire Big Day record. Certainly 160 is an achievable target for this huge county and perhaps now we've laid down the gauntlet some young turks will steam through our total, or perhaps not.  There are hard learnt lessons that come in to play in planning a Big Day and we'll certainly give 160 a go in the next couple of years.

I fear that in the Big Days of the next decade there will be very few of these beauties to be seen.  I enjoy everyone as if it's the last.

Sammy's Point deserving of more than a flying visit.

Last orders - Jono's Little Owl was our last new bird of the day.

Mark and Rich celebrate 

Huge Thanks to my team mates for great skill, positivity and friendship (and photos)