Photo credit: Lesser Yellowlegs at Nosterfield NR - June 2020. Photo by Bob H (@zuriag)
It is now a year since the Lesser Yellowlegs first arrived at Nosterfield. It has survived pandemics and thousands of camera lenses, to become possibly the most photographed UK yellowlegs ever.
As an American he or she quickly realised what some of us mere limeys have known for quite some time …Nosterfield Nature Reserve is as finer spot as any this side of the Atlantic!
But for how long will it be with us? Read Steve Clifton’s account of this American’s Yorkshire sojourn:
Today it’s exactly a full year since the Lesser Yellowlegs first appeared at Nosterfield! But that’s not where it made its first local appearance…
As a birder who has an inland patch about 15 miles to the north of Nosterfield, finding rarities is not something I expect to happen on a regular basis. Birding isn’t all about rarities after all - but like anyone I'm prone to dream, and for sure I’ve been lucky enough to see some great birds in this area over the years. Quite a number of them have been at Nosterfield (and I’ve even found a few of them myself!). Personal experience has also taught me to expect the unexpected.
My first encounter with this bird was on 17th November 2019, while doing a routine count of Golden Plover and Lapwing near my home. To say I was surprised when this beauty stepped into view is a huge understatement. Its occurrence is not so unusual in itself though: it’s well known that ‘lost’ waders often tag onto groups of other more common species when they lose their way. But what was unusual on this occasion was the location: this was in a recently ploughed field by the A1 at Catterick!
My experience with local rare birds is that they don’t usually hang around for long; somehow, they just know that they shouldn’t be there. Hence, they usually move on very quickly.
Predictably, this seemed to be the case again here. After less than 15 minutes of brief views and a couple of poor photos, it flew off towards Scorton Quarry where it was fortunately relocated by a friend, and there it remained for an hour or so in the afternoon. It stayed until the following day but was highly mobile and difficult to catch up with. Six weeks passed until the end of the year, and I assumed that was that. Gone forever, and I had been one of the lucky few to see it - a new species for our local area!
However, this was the local rarity that hadn’t read the rule book: the one that as it turned out, took quite a fancy to its new environs in North Yorkshire, and was planning on enjoying a more extended stay!
On 6th January 2020 the keen-eyed regular watchers at Nosterfield picked it out at the quarry. After initially disappearing, it then promptly reappeared later that day, and quickly established a routine that broke the mould for lost inland rare birds. I saw it later that week and after close examination of my photos, was certain that it had to be the same bird that I’d seen at Catterick seven weeks previously.
For the next eight months the Lesser Yellowlegs became a regular fixture at Nosterfield. It remained throughout the whole of the first Covid-19 national lockdown, and though it occasionally went ‘missing’ for short periods, it could usually be found at Nosterfield Nature Reserve throughout much of the summer months. When not there it was often at one of the waters around the nearby quarry. Although I managed to see it again a couple of times late summer, the views were always distant, and just when many of us thought it would never leave, it surprised us once again, being last seen at Nosterfield around 10th August 2020.
But it wasn’t over yet…
This is a bird with an interesting story to tell. On 1st October 2020 I was at home and heard that a Lesser Yellowlegs had been found early morning at Bank Island in the Lower Derwent Valley, about forty miles away. Perhaps the Nosterfield bird had wandered to the York area: maybe this is where it had gone following its late summer disappearing act? Even better, it had been last reported at 9am flying off north west! Surely it wasn’t heading back to us for the second time?
I went to Scorton Quarry that afternoon, and upon arrival I quickly located a wader feeding along the shore with Lapwings. It seems hard to believe now but it was indeed a Lesser Yellowlegs! However, things weren’t quite what they seemed! Any reasonable person would have concluded that this had to be the same bird that left the LDV earlier that morning, but I later heard from one of the finders of that bird, that it had reappeared there in the early afternoon: at exactly the same time I had been watching the one at Scorton! We had two birds in Yorkshire at the same time, and the new bird had decided to appear on the same day that the original bird re-visited Scorton for the first time since last autumn. Quite where it had been is anybody’s guess. It has been suggested that it could have moved to the coast to moult, or perhaps it had just found a new area to feed somewhere in the local area?
It remained at Scorton for just this one afternoon this year and was only seen by me on this occasion. Within five days it was back at Nosterfield, where it has remained through Christmas and into the new year.
Lesser Yellowlegs at Nosterfield NR – 1st January 2021 – Photo Christine Weaver (@thatsweavernews)
Why was it here? Why is it still here? Will it return home?
As I hinted above, this is a species that shouldn’t really be here. Lesser Yellowlegs is a fairly common species in North America. To an extent, it and its larger cousin the Greater Yellowlegs replace our familiar Eurasian Redshank and Greenshank over there. Lesser Yellowlegs is a regular and quite predictable vagrant to the UK (Greater is much rarer). In fact, they have become so regular in Britain that they are no longer considered by our national rarities committee - as of January 2019. However, in Yorkshire (and in fact anywhere on the east side of Britain) they are decidedly scarce: even more so inland. Before the arrival of this bird I think there were no more than 13 records in the whole of Yorkshire, of which just 4 were in North Yorkshire. The nearest previous record was at Wheldrake Ings in 2009.
The majority of birds occur at coastal sites, so the fact that this individual has remained well inland for so long in North Yorkshire is particularly noteworthy. So much so that it has become something of a local celebrity! For me, and I’m sure for many others, we should feel especially grateful that this bird has stayed and eventually allowed so many people to catch up with it. I believe it is still present today!
When it arrived this bird was a first year bird, no doubt hatched in a marsh or bog in the far north of North America earlier in 2019. Young birds like this are statistically far more likely to wander in their first year than their more experience parents and being a wader (some of which undertake the longest non-stop migrations of any birds) it is perfectly capable of finding its way back ‘home’ when old enough to breed. It is quite normal for certain species of wader in their first year, to spend their first winter and the following summer on their wintering grounds (in the case of Lesser Yellowlegs, usually in South America). They will then migrate back north to breed during the following spring when around two years old.
So ‘our bird’ probably thinks it has found a lovely wet meadow with lots of great feeding in South America - a testament to the superb habitat that has been created at Nosterfield LNR. I predict that come next spring, maybe in late March or April, it will likely leave us for the final time. Waders can be quite long-lived birds, and with luck it should go on to breed back home in North America for several years as an adult.
Today, we are just entering into our 3rd full national lockdown of the past year. Hopefully before it leaves we’ll get another chance or two to see this fantastic bird before it moves on…
Steve Clifton (Twitter @steclifton1)