Holgate Birder: Red- breasted flycatcher and Great grey shrike.

A very autumnal morning on Hartlepool Headland. Drizzle and mist was the weather offering, so I was hoping that the weather conditions would mean that birds would not be moving far. A great grey shrike had been reported at the Headland, so I was optimistic.

I started at the tennis courts but other birders told me that it had flown off towards the church. I joined another group in Olive Street who were looking for a yellow- browed warbler. It was a nice surprise to see Chris Downes arrive to join us. Before the pandemic we had spent may an hour in the area birding, especially on January 1st. The warbler was proving difficult to see so we walked to the bowling green and joined others looking for the shrike.

After a few minutes waiting in the rain we were rewarded with good views of the bird. I could not see it at first, but Chris soon told me where to look. The bird flew down to the ground before returning to the tree and then flying off again. Year tick for both of us.

Chris suggested that we try the putting green next, so he drove there whilst I chose to walk and check on a few places on the way. There were 2 groups of birders in the area. 1 were looking for warblers near the Boro Hall without any luck, so we joined others in the putting green. There were several birds in the trees and bushes, and as people called out where they were I found it a bit confusing. Eventually we all seemed to be watching a red-breasted flycatcher and ignoring a pied fly and a lesser whitethroat. The bird was moving from tree to tree but every now and again it was visible as it perched on leafless branches. Another year tick for both us. Mark and Carol turned up and soon saw the bird, year tick 199 for Mark.

We decided to go back to near the Heugh Battery and do a spot of sea watching. We joined 2 other birders who had been there a while, but had seen nothing special, mainly due to the mist. Visibility gradually improved and we saw gannets, sandwich terns, red-throated diver and then Chris saw an arctic skua, quite close to the shore. A year tick for him, which left him 1 behind my year total.

Chris decided to go back to the putting green to see if any other birds had been found. I stayed hoping to see more skuas but to no avail. I drove to RSPB Saltholme while Chris stayed to try to get some picture of the flycatcher. He joined me in the Phil Stead hide and showed me a good picture he had managed to take.

In front of the hide we saw, snipe, ruff, curlew, black-tailed godwits, moorhens and teal.