Flamborough Headland, situated on the North Sea coast of East Yorkshire, is renowned for having the largest mainland seabird colony in Britain and a reputation for the best seawatching on the British east coast. Not least, the area is a fantastic place to witness bird migration and see small birds such as thrushes, chats and warblers making landfall after crossing the North Sea. It also has an impeccable pedigree in attracting scarcities from continental Europe and many rarities from farther east.
Latest Sightings
- 17th November 2025
The weather consisted of blustery northerly winds, sunny intervals and occasional showers, with a maximum of eight degrees C. Seawatch highlights included a Sooty Shearwater flying north and a Red-necked Grebe heading in the opposite direction; a Goosander, three dark-bellied Brent Geese, four Little Gulls, a Bonxie and four Manx… - 16th November 2025
Relatively light northerly winds, overcast skies and a high of nine degrees C. A juvenile Long-tailed Skua chased Little Gulls off the Fog Station before flying south. Two Little Auks flew north during the seawatch, as did a single Red-necked Grebe. Other sightings included 48 dark-bellied Brent Geese, ten Eider,… - 15th November 2025Overcast with persistent but light rain until early afternoon, a blustery easterly wind and top temperature of nine degrees C. Wildfowl moving past the Seawatch Observatory included 123 dark-bellied Brent Geese, two pale-bellied Brent Geese, three Pintail, 466 Common Scoters and two Goldeneye. In a local context, the 40 Grey…
- 14th November 2025Strong east-north-east winds and rain throughout, with a maximum of nine degrees C. Seawatching provided the highlights, headlined by a close Leach’s Petrel that slowly flew north just beyond the surf mid-afternoon. Also on the move were three Sooty Shearwaters, seven Manx Shearwaters, a Blue Fulmar, four Great Northern Divers,…
Daily Birding Highlights
Recent Birding Highlights
Click on the button below for full details of all birding highlights for the last 30 days. The posts are ordered with the latest first.
Birding Highlights Archive
Select the required month and highlights for every day will be presented for the chosen period. This archive goes back to 2014 and posts ordered with the earliest first.
The Ringing Diary
- Migweek 2025Every year FBO runs its Migweek event, offering daily guided walks, daily ringing demonstrations, talks and a migration station providing info, merchandise and chat. The event continues to grow in popularity with this year being the best ever with a big increase in visitor numbers. The team ran eleven ringing…
- September 2025This month saw the final preparations for Migweek, with the clearing of rides at South Landing being completed. Twenty seven sessions were run across the headland including three at RSPB Bempton. Towards the end of the month we welcomed Dr. Joe Wynn from Liverpool University who is researching where trans-siberian…
- August 2025What an amazing month for our ringing team! Thirty-one sessions were held at eight different sites which yielded a fabulous 1301 birds of which 1163 were newly ringed and 137 were re-traps, with two UK controls and one foreign control. Our team ran two public demonstrations on 16th & 17th…
- July 2025The calm weather of July gave our team more opportunities to hold ringing sessions this month, with 33 run at 7 sites, including Thornwick roost, CES at Thornwick, South Landing and our usual garden sites. A total of 596 birds were caught with 551 of these newly ringed plus 45…
Click on the button below for full details of all posts about ringing. The posts are ordered with the latest first.