This week we were on holiday at Filey, Yorkshire, with the Grandchildren. So lots of beach time but we did manage a couple of visits to the RSPB reserve at Bempton Cliffs. Unfortunately our sea cruise to see the birds diving for fish and to watch for Dolphins was cancelled due to a heavy sea swell off Flamborough Head.
Bempton is a fantastic place to visit. The RSPB have erected platforms so that viewing the birds and the coastline give you a “wow” moment. You are so high up you become eye level with the soaring birds. It really is breath taking.
You can also Sea Watch for Dolphins, and Porpoises and the week before we arrived a Minke Whale had been spotted. So take your binoculars.
This time of year you can also spot migrating birds at sea such as the Skuas. The reserve’s fields and meadows on the cliff top are home to all sorts of wild flowers and Butterflies. Around the visitor centre is a healthy flock of Tree Sparrows and nesting Swallows. Short Eared Owls have been seen quartering the area and many small migrating warblers have been recorded in the hedgerows.
We could spend a week there, easily.
The sight, the sound, and the smell of the Seabird City along with the stunning views of the Yorkshire Coast, is just something everyone has to experience at some point. You will never forget it. Well, you may want to forget the smelly bit, depends which way the wind is blowing. (Picture taken by our Granddaughter)
From Bempton Cliffs looking over Filey Bay towards Scarborough. This is why we love the Yorkshire Coast.
We hoped to catch site of the Black-Browed Albatross who has been named by the locals “Albert Ross”. So you can imagine how thrilled we were to see him and to be able to point him out to the Grandchildren. He put on a fine aerobatic display to the watching visitors. He flew so close and his wingspan was so wide that sometimes we could not get all of him in the picture. These birds are normally found in the Southern hemisphere and spend their days exploring the southern seas but this one appears to like Bempton as it has been visiting the last three summers. Albatrosses blown off-course in the northern hemisphere seem to associate themselves with large gannet colonies like the one at Bempton, and you cannot blame him.
Black -Browed Albatross ( View more Albatross Images from this trip in the Sea Bird Gallery )
Early in the summer the Gannets share the cliffs with nesting Puffins, Razorbills, and Guillemots but this time of year only a few remain as the majority have flown off to explore the seas leaving the Gannets , Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Herring Gulls room to spread out.
The northern Gannet is the largest of our seabirds. Bright white with a black-tipped six foot wingspan, a creamy orange head and a long dagger-like bill, these plunge-diving birds are mesmerising.
Gannet image taken by our Grandson. (More images of the Gannets taken on this trip can be viewed in the Sea Bird gallery)
Kittiwakes
Juvenile Kittiwake spreading its wings. (More Images of the Kittiwakes in the Sea Bird Gallery)
One of the RSPB Volunteers pointed out this young Fulmar chick in a rock crevice, we would not have spotted it otherwise. It was so well hidden and looked safe from the elements and predators.
Fulmars belong to a group of birds known as “tubenoses” or “petrels” and are related to the Albatrosses. When threatened, nesting birds will spit a foul smelling oily mixture onto intruders.
The Tree Sparrow is a scarce and declining bird in the UK thus making this flock around the visitor centre extremely important. Tree Sparrows can be found in woodlands and on farmland and unlike the House Sparrow it cannot be found in urban areas. A Tree Sparrow has a chestnut brown head whilst the male House Sparrow has a light grey head
One of the young fledgling Swallows just thinking about getting up courage to fly out into the wide world.