That Will Take Some Beating!

 More county treachery this weekend though in this case it was in the company of my brother. Our original plan had been to visit Flamborough Head in Yorkshire for a seawatching festival where we intended to stay and watch Storm Petrels being ringed. As is often the case those plans did not survive contact with the real world and our eventual itinerary turned out to be slightly different. No complaints however as we enjoyed one of our best days out for some time.

Rubbish pics but great birds - White-tailed Lapwing and Black-browed Albatross.

First stop was at Blacktoft Sands near Goole where a White-tailed Lapwing was drawing in a steady stream of admirers. We managed to see the bird without much effort at all and while the bird was always rather distant it still showed pretty well. A few dodgy record shots of this rare wader were duly taken, this was our second sighting of this species having previously seen one at Dungeness a few years ago. Other birds seen or heard at the reserve were Green Sandpiper, Ruffs and Bearded Tits. While we might have been tempted to hang around for a while news that the Black-browed Albatross had returned to the cliffs at Bempton brought about a speedy departure.

Gannets

Bempton was busy though we did manage to get parked and made our way to the cliffs. Good news greeted out arrival, the albatross was still on site and showing distantly. OK scope views and rather poorer record shots were obtained of this rare visitor from the southern hemisphere which seems to have adopted the Gannet colony this Summer. It was a great result in particular for my brother David who had dipped on a previous visit. Plenty of Gannets were still in residence though many of the other seabirds had moved on. A few Fulmars and a Peregrine were seen from the cliffs while there was a good number of Tree Sparrows around the visitor centre.

Tree Sparrow and Flamborough views.

Having enjoyed (or perhaps that should be endured!) a somewhat underwhelming meal we finally made our way to Flamborough where we managed to find some room in the seawatching hide. For the next couple of hours we were treated to a small but interesting selection of birds passing by. Skuas were represented by five Great and two Arctics with most being rather distant though a couple did allow slightly better views. More Fulmars and Gannets made up the bulk of the records though a couple of Red-throated Divers, some Kittiwakes and a few Guillemots were noted. My favourite seabird was a Sooty Shearwater which showed quite well, I hardly ever get to enjoy half decent views of this species. Non seabird highlights included another Peregrine, a Wheatear and a couple of Eiders. One of the highlights for me of the visit was the large number of Grey Seals that were loafing on the rocks once the receeding tide had exposed them. Having started earlier than we would have liked any notion of seeing the planned Storm Petrel ringing session had to be abandoned and we left for home during the late afternoon.

Grey Seals.