June 2022 A few days at RSPB Bempton Cliffs

 We stayed at Scarborough and had a few sessions at RSPB Bempton Cliffs.  It really is a magical reserve and there are plenty of species that you are guaranteed to see during the nesting season.  It is also a great place to practice your birds in flight photography.

I hope I get to see this fellow

I saw this poster on the way down to the cliffs.  It is actually life size what an amazing bird and I heard it had returned in the last few days.  My appetite was realty wetted!

What a wingspan 7 to 8 feet

Everyone loves Puffins and that includes me.  There are plenty around and I was quiet pleased with this image.  I thing the white flowers really set it off. It is almost as if someone has been arranging the set to allow people to get satisfying images.

A beautiful Puffin in full breeding plumage

What an amazing bill and they have such doleful eyes.

On the cliff face there are a number of regular species and these include Guillemot's, 

Guillemot

Kittiwake

Razorbill

I particularly love the call of the Kittiwakes they are such a cliff top bird and love the marine environment.

Gannet

The Gannets were circulating around constantly and coming around just above the Cliffs.  They were relatively an easy target for the camera as they were flying and hovering right next to the cliff.  Quite a mesmerising sight I could just watch them for hours.

Another bird I love is the Fulmar.  It circles around on stiff wings.  It does remind me of a small Albatross.

Fulmar

No sign of the Albatross on the first day, but it was a really enjoyable morning.  Along the path back to the centre there was a very confiding and showy Tree Sparrow.  As they birds are virtually extinct in my own county of Gloucestershire I could not walk past without grabbing a few images.

Tree Sparrow

This bird has now become quite rare in the UK

That was a very enjoyable morning.

The next afternoon we had seen most of Scarborough and made a late decision to re-visit Bempton in the afternoon.

We travelled light and I had my camera settings ready for birds in flight and just a bean bag.

There were people with scopes saying they could just make out the Albatross far out at sea.

Someone shouted there he is down under the cliffs and it was areal panic to get the bird in focus.

It only appeared for a very short time.  I was so chuffed to capture a few images.

Black Browed Albatross

I don't normally count myself as a twitcher, but we had planned the holiday months ago.  When you think that this bird is one of only perhaps two in the Northern Hemisphere and it had been absent from Bempton for six months before we arrived.  I count myself as very lucky.

One bird doesn't make a summer.

Well perhaps this one does!