RBS - No

 No...not the Royal Bank of Scotland!

A conservative estimate would be 10 Hours of effort over 2+ days. Just a statement of fact, no pat on the back needed. I covered ALL areas of my elastic Village boundary (it stretches even more when there's a chance of something "special)!

I started on Wednesday morning at Old Hive...It was great to see the re-established Sand Martin Colony (c100) in full swing after the Winter erosion...did I mention the horrendous weather?!

Tough Birds

A cracking LBB Gull cruised along the beach...

...and this Reed Bunting was in full song...

 

I checked all the bramble clumps...

No RBS

Next it was the Cliff Paddock...

Plenty of perching opportunities? Alas no luck nor on the Clifftop...

Although a brief flight view of a small brown Bird with a russet tail strongly suggested Redstart (P.95, H.78)...Nightingale did cross my mind...briefly...Thrush Nightingale even less so!!

After lunch it was onto Snakey...

Male Marsh Harrier through the continuing gloom

...then the picturesque Sewage...

Still no RBS. I did get great views of a couple of Yellow Wagtails...

I ended up back at the Paddock around 6 but still no luck...until a Barn Owl appeared...

Yesterday I checked all the above areas again and marched along the Cliff to the Runnel via the now precarious First Pill...

Sadly, an inevitable demise

Patient as ever

A few Swifts (P.96, H.79) were brought down by the poor weather. Another check on Snakey Lane produced another pair of Yellow Wagtails in the Arable...

There have been 20+ Red-backed Shrikes reported between Spurn and Redcar in the last few days. I felt this was my best chance since moving here (2011) to add this Species to my Village List. It wasn't to be.