A warm, muggy day, cloudy for the most part with showers during the morning. The temperature reached a maximum of 20°C with a light easterly breeze.
Without any doubt, the bird of the day was a first-winter Green Warbler at Buckton, a major rarity by any standard. Although seen briefly beforehand as a ‘wing-barred phyllosc’, it was not definitively identified until it was extracted from a net about midday. It remained elusive the rest of the day and showed very briefly on a handful of occasions. This bird is not only the first record for the Flamborough headland but after one on the Lizard, Cornwall in 2019, only the second mainland record for Britain. All other seven British records (not all yet published) comprise five from the Northern Isles and singles from Lundy and Scilly.
Other birds at Buckton included a Pied Flycatcher, two Willow Warblers and a Whinchat while a short distance along the clifftop, Bempton Cliffs RSPB hosted another Pied Flycatcher, a Redstart and small numbers of common warbler species. The Black-browed Albatross reappeared after its latest fishing sortie lasting a couple of days.
The morning seawatch at the Fog Station was a little better than recent days with a Ruddy Shelduck, 86 Teal and three Mediterranean Gulls. Shearwaters were limited to four Sooty and a single Manx while skuas only numbered nine Arctic and four Bonxies.
The excitement at Buckton curtailed most coverage of the Outer Head.
