Filey has recently had two new additions to its birdlist. Cattle Egret was not unexpected, but American Golden Plover surely was, as was its method of detection. A Cattle Egret was photographed by Tony Simpson at Filey Dams on 7th July, but sadly did not linger, fading away like a Cheshire Cat. Another large white bird for our list.

Then most surprisingly analysis of a nocmig sound recording from 13th May from North Cliff made by Mark Pearson (MJP) revealed it was none other than an American Golden Plover. This has been confirmed by several experts in the sound field. Mark has also had goodies such as Bittern and Night-Heron on nocmig this year.

While some may be surprised that such records can be accepted, there is a standard procedure now in place, and rarity nocmig records have to be accepted by the relevant authorities (YNU/BBRC) before they become part of our permanent record. We also have several experienced nocmig practitioners to verify FBOG-level rarities.

Following on from accepted records, I would like to say also that we’ve had some recent rarities that for one reason or another were not submitted to FBOG/YNU/BBRC, or that we have no observer name for, and so can’t go in our Annual Reports.  If this is you please submit, so we can happily add it to our FBOG tally.

George (FBOG Recorder)