AUTUMNAL MIGRATION OF BIRDS ON THE N.E. COAST.
By John Cordeaux.
The autumn of 1877 was in some respects peculiar; the temperature was exceedingly mild, with a long succession of winds, blowing with greater or lesser force from points varying from W.N.W. to S.S.E. From the middle of September to the end of November there was not a single gale, or even a strong breeze, from the N., N.E. or E. This long continuance of favourable passage winds for the birds caused our immigrants to pass forward without alighting on any part of our east coast district; consequently we saw very little of them, and the season was comparatively barren of incident. Mr. Gätke says this also has been the case in Heligoland. "There has," he writes, "never been so wretched an autumn since I have lived on this rock—now forty years."
Knots, birds of the year, appeared on the Humber flats on the 24th August, and about the same date we had large arrivals of Redshanks. In fact, this latter species was extremely plentiful throughout the Humber district, both on the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire coasts. Mr. Boyes, of Beverley, informs me that he saw an immense flock of Redshanks at Spurn on the 12th September, four or five hundred together; and when I was there, a month later, the Redshanks were by far the commonest of any birds on the coast.
The autumn of 1876 was remarkable for the great flight of Short-eared Owls between North Durham and the Wash, also further south. In 1877 they were altogether wanting, and no wonder after the warm reception they then met with. The bulk of the immigrants, which ought to have gone northward again in the spring, were immediately shot down and converted into handscreens. On the whole coast line I only heard of four—namely, one on the 1st October in this parish, one at Spurn in October, and two owls which passed over the Tees floating lightship on the 21st October probably belonged to this species.
The first Hooded Crows were seen on the 7th October. They came in greater numbers than usual from this date to the end of November, at intervals.
Snow Buntings were seen at Spurn at the end of the second week in October. On the 17th I only saw two, both fine adults,
