Wednesday 28 June 2017

A Day at the Coast Part 1

We took our annual trip to Bempton on Sunday morning. We picked a good day, it was windy (of course) but the rain held off and the sun even came out a little.

As we turned on to the lane towards the cliffs a Hare jumped out of the grass at the side of the road and leapt in front of the car, we were going slow and luckily the Hare was going very fast, it ran across the road into the verge at the other side. It's been a long time since i've had such a close encounter with a Hare!

Walking down to the first viewpoint we spoke to one of the RSPB staff who had a telescope set up on a Puffin, we spotted another on the cliff but both were a little difficult to pick up through the grass. Still it was a good start, I mean we love the cliffs and seeing the huge numbers of birds is amazing but spotting that first Puffin is a little special!

Spot the Puffins among the Guillemots!

They weren't are only ones during the day, we saw quite a few on the cliff faces and flying backwards and forwards to the sea. We saw the same lady again at another viewpoint and this time she had a clear view of a Puffin on the scope and called us over to look. The are such stunning little birds.


Lots of the birds had chicks, though most were hidden amongst the adult birds legs these three Kittiwake chicks were a little more showy!

Kittiwake



Gannets 


Kittiwake (with a Razorbill in the foreground)

A pair of Fulmar were huddled together on one of the cliffs.


Away from the cliff face there were plenty of birds about, we saw Meadow Pipits, Skylarks, Linnet, Whitethroat, Tree Sparrows, Reed Buntings and the ever present Jackdaws. At the visitors centre these Swallows were getting lots of attention, I don't think they'll be far off fledging, they were trying out their wings.






Jackdaw

There were a few butterflies around, Ringlet and Small Tortoiseshell but they were almost constantly on the wing.


We had lunch by the car and then headed off to Filey for the rest of the day, more to come on that!

6 comments:

  1. How exciting!! The Puffins are awesome looking! I've only seen them when I was in Alaska, LONG AGO!! Thank you for sharing these awesome birds!

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    1. Aren't they! I love going to see them, we're lucky we have them so close :)

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  2. Great photos Pam and what a wonderful day out. Bempton Cliffs, or indeed any sea bird colony, is something I would just love to visit. Only seen puffins once years and years ago on a boat trip!

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    1. Thanks :) It's such a great place to go and there's plenty of other places to visit on the same bit of coast should you ever want to take a holiday..........

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  3. I love Bempton Cliffs, there is always so much to see at this time of year!

    For the past few years we've been once or twice a year and done Bempton Cliffs and a seabird cruise with RSPB but this year we took a year off as we've done all the cruises and feel like we've seen it all before now! I know there's always something new to see or a different bird might appear, but I think we just fancied a change and it worked out well with the house buying!

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    1. It's a beautiful place. The seabird cruise is on my list of things to do but my daughter does not like boats at all so it'll need a bit of planning!

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