We intended to take the coast road down to East Yorkshire, but from the start a heavy sea fret blanketed everything and stayed all day. We abandoned calling it at places like Saltburn, and Staithes and although we stopped at Filey Country Park for lunch we could not see a thing. Not even the edge of the cliff in some places.
It was a bit early to check in at our holiday cottage so we headed inland a bit to Forge Valley and it was glorious. The sun was shining and it was really warm. The sides of the stream were covered in wildflowers, predominantly Wild Garlic which filled the air with a heady scent.
A Grey Wagtail was flitting up and down catching the flies that hovered just above the water.
The sun is out and this is where we spent most of the second week. Rockville Cottages at Bucton is just 10 mins away. Home from Home. The coastline here has suffered a lot from erosion and one of the viewing platforms was closed as unsafe. The amount of cliff falls here and at Flambourough and Filey this past winter is quite worrying.
Fulmars
Gannet, don’t think the missus will be pleased with just one blade of grass for the nest.
This cheeky so and so is pinching someone else’s nesting material.
Ha Haa, got it, now to take it back to my nest.
Kittiwakes collecting nesting material from the field.
More nesting material coming in.
Did you know Gannets mate for life. They renew their bonds when returning to the nesting colony every year.
Razorbills
Guillimots
Fulmars
Razorbills
A morning at Filey Dams nature reserve . Mum swan so proud of her family.
Chiff Chaff singing away in the sunshine.
“ I just want to reach the bottom like Mum does”.
Oyster Catcher having a spruce up.
Male Garganey,a summer visitor .
Tides out, it was very warm the morning we visited Thornwick Bay.
House Martins collecting mud to build their nests on the cliff face the other side of the bay.
Thornwick Bay is a good place to get close views of Puffins.
His mate had just disappeared into the nest.
A forlorn Guillimot on the rocky shore. “No one loves me”
Not just seabirds at Bempton, they also have a large colony of Tree Sparrows. The Tree Sparrow is a scarce farmland bird, although you would not know it here, they are doing very well. There are plenty of nestboxes for them to use at the reserve. They have about three broods a year and are another bird that mates for life.
Jackdaws are constantly hunting the cliff face for any unattended nests, and also clean up around the visitor centre looking for any discarded food. They are extremely cunning birds.
Sedge Warbler among the Red Campion flowers, not the usual place to find them.
Gannets, again!
Fulmar, just hanging about soaring in the breeze
Razorbill incoming
Gannets also like to just glide along in the wind. This one is about a year old, they do not mature until about 4 or 5 years old.
Another immature Gannet, just hanging about. This one is probably just entering its 3rd year.
The Bempton Barn Owl.
Mid week and the rain arrived. Not just rain but torential all day, it just did not stop. Thank goodness we had a comfortable warm cottage. A meeting and a chat with a fellow local birdwatcher on the Bempton clifftop led us to explore a raptor viewpoint that we did not know about, where all kinds can be seen. As the sea fret or “haa” had returned we decided to head inland to find it.
Look at these great seats with a tilted back so you can look up without falling over! This viewpoint is very high and was shrouded in low cloud so we did not find any raptors but at least we know where it is for another time.
Our last afternoon, and the bad weather seemed to have swept in various migrants. Pied Flycatchers had been seen close to Bempton and a female Spotted Blue Throat had been spotted at Thornwick Pools. There was no sign of it when we arrived and local bird club members had not been able to find it either. However we did see a Common Sandpiper.
Late afternoon and we went for a dog walk along the cliff top at Thornwick Bay. We left our cameras in the car and just took our binoculars, the weather was so dreary. A local birdwatcher spotted us with our binoculars and said”If your looking for something different I’ve just seen a Red Backed Shrike up the top, on the fence at the back of the park”. Fellow birdwatchers are so friendly and helpful.
We headed back to the car, grabbed our cameras and off we went. The light was so poor, but there he was, on the fence. A handsome male. We had not seen one before, so another first and our bird of the month. So thank you to the local dog walker and birdwatcher who pointed him out to us,
We watched him for about half an hour before he flew across to a small spinney and out of sight. Gorgeous bird. We have since discoverd that Male Red Backed Shrikes had been seen all along the east coast that afternoon, and about 36 of them had landed in the Shetland Isles. It must have been the storm that brought them in.
So thats it, heading home with a stop off for tea and biscuits and a catch up as we were passing right by their door, with another friend and neighbour, who has just moved to Yorkshire to be near family. So, one set of neighbours moved to Northumberland, another set moved to Yorkshire, and another to Devon. Starting to think its something we said……