Serin at Flamborough

I'd planned on going for the Flamborough Serin on Saturday, that was until news of the Western Orphean Warbler was out. So I had to wait until today until I had the chance to go for it.

I got to Falmborough mid-morning and was surprised to find about 20 cars parked up on the verge! I was hoping for a quiet twitch after yesterdays crowds of 100+ people! In reality it wasn't that bad and there were many familiar faces looking for the bird.

After an hour of waiting and getting my bearings in the set-aside field a single small bird flew into the bushes I was looking at. It called once as it dropped in before vanishing out of sight. About 15 minutes later I got another very brief look at it from behind. It looked like a smaller Lesser Redpoll from behind, but as it turned I got a flash of bright yellow on the face/throat. It then flew down in to set-aside where it vanished for another 10 minutes! A Sparrowhawk went through and flushed out loads of Chaffinch and Goldfinch but I didn't notice the Serin leave. A short while later more birds flew out of the field, then one on its own - the Serin.

This time it landed in the hedge and was more in view that the last brief view. It sat in the hedge preening for about 5/10 minutes and eventually showed numerous different angles, including opening its wings to display its bright yellow rump (not visible on my first sighting). It turned round and faced briefly and was quite impressive yellow on the breast and head.

I've got a new Iphone this weekend and haven't had time to learn how to use it properly however I grabbed one record shot (below)

Serin (phone-scoped)

I guess the reason for the 20 or so cars is because although Serin is pretty much annual in Yorkshire most of the records pertain to flyover birds at coastal watchpoints like Spurn and Flamborough with not many being twitchable. The last twitchable bird in Yorkshire was probably about 10 years ago...