The Fabulous Farne Islands

Warning Will Robinson, this post is still a work in progress ...

Last week I took my wife Sarah to see the fabulous Farne Islands and I'm very pleased to say that she was disappointed. We fired up Bessy, our old motorhome and birdmobile, and from the moment we left my fingers weren't permanently crossed that we didn't break down. Thankfully, Bessy performed admirably.  However, the weather could be a different matter I was thinking - from several very hot and sunny days it had suddenly turned to dull overcast skies and heat rain.

I'd booked two nights on Springhill Farm caravan and camping site at Seahouses and, after a scenic detour from the A1 which was closed at one section, we arrived there in just less than five hours, an hour and a half longer the planned.  I'd been to this site in 2017 on my first visit to the Farnes and I was pleased to say that the camp site was still as good as I'd remembered it.

After checking in we took quick look at the harbour area in Seahouses to decide where to park in the morning and I was horrified to see that the whole harbour was cordoned off and undergoing works to prevent it crumbling into the sea. It was still open to passengers for the trips however.  Nevermind, there was more parking up in the village centre which was still within an acceptable walking distance for me and my heavy camera gear.

We had fish and chips at one of the restaurants and then took a drive along the coastal road to the pretty village of Bamburgh and its very impressive castle.  I recanted the tale of Grace Darling and her daring rescue as we drove past the churchyard where she is buried and Sarah got a brief glimpse of her tomb.  She also pointed the Grace Darling museum on the opposite side of the road.

The weather wasn't getting any better and it was quite dark by now, so we decided to head back to the campsite and a cup of tea before going to bed.

After a reasonable good night's sleep we had breakfast and set off for the harbour. I had originally planned to get there very early to secure a price parking space, but with the harbour being out of bounds due to the works, it wasn't so pressing.

I checked in at the Billy Shiels ticket office to get the tickets and then at the National Trust office to get the landing passes, which were in the form of wrist bands.  Landing on the islands costs a staggering extra £34.50 per person if you're not a member of the National Trust, so in 2017 I joined the Scottish National Trust, which is half the price of the (English) National Trust and we've been join members ever since.  The two organisations have reciprocal agreements for allowing member to visit their properties and as yet, we've never been refused entry into a National Trust site with our Scottish memberships.

Soon we were boarding the St, Cuthbert III and on our way to the Farnes.

More text to follow .... 

Bempton Cliffs Practise

In order to help choose which lenses and camera bodies to take to the Farne Islands later this week, I took a long day trip to Bempton Cliffs RSPB on the east Yorkshire Coast. Gannets were to be the main focus here with Puffins, Razorbills, Guillemots, Kittiwakes and Fulmars also prime targets.

Gannet - Look into my eyes!

4th Year Gannet

2nd Year Gannet

3rd Year Gannet

3rd year Gannet

Jackdaw

Fulmar

Guillemot

Guillemot in flight

Guillemots

Puffin

Razorbill

South Gare and Coatham Beach

Here's the best of the rest from my visit to see the Pomarine Skua at South Gare near Redcar.  Most of these shots were taken from Coatham Beach on the southern side of the breakwater.

Dunlin flock

Juvenile Curlew Sandpiper

Common Tern feeding young on the sea

Guillemot

Kittiwake

Turnstone

Bar-tailed Godwit

Juvenile Common Tern

Red-throated Diver

Red-throated Diver

Turnstone

Tees River Pilot

Atlantic Grey Seal

Going Pelagic Again ...

I went out on another pelagic trip in Liverpool Bay with Richard Steel and the crew in the hope of getting some better seabird photographs than those taken on my last visit.

Day 3 - L.O.S. Fieldtrip to Bempton Cliffs RSPB

In the weeks before I set off on this mini-break to east Yorkshire, I'd realised that not many people were going to attend the final L.O.S. fieldtrip of the season today. May is a time when people go on holiday if they can to avoid the higher summer prices and the family crowds when the schools have broken up.  It's also a time when people arrange their special events such as weddings and christenings. We still had at least six people going in the last few days leading up to the trip, but a succession of messages telling me people weren't coming turned my mind to cancelling it altogether.  The weather forecast and the distance had perhaps put them off going.

However, one person, John Preston, was faithful until the end and never wavered in his desire to come.  He even volunteered to meet people with a map and directions at the usual place on Doctors Nook car park in Leigh, mainly because I wouldn't be there as I was already in Flamborough.  So I was consoled to the fact that there would be just the two of us at Bempton, and naturally I was very pleased to discover on the car park there that young birder Kristian Wade had also turned up and come with him.  Kristian went on our previous trip to Bolton Abbey last month, and he obviously wasn't put off by the age profile of the L.O.S. membership!

To be continued ...

Day 2 - All aboard the Yorkshire Belle

As my boat trip along the sea cliffs at Bempton didn't start until 4:30pm today, I more or less had the whole day to do some exploring around the Flamborough area.  This was useful because I could get the lay of the land in case anyone wanted to extend their L.O.S. fieldtrip visit tomorrow.  It also meant that I didn't need to get up very early and, after a very pleasant evening at the campsite, followed by a shower and then breakfast in my motorhome, I only left at around 9:15am.

I started at Flamborough North Landing, before visiting Thornwick Bay and finally Thornwick Pools. The scenery here is fabulous, with white chalk cliffs carved into stacks and caves by the action of the waves on it over hundreds of years.  It's a geographer and geologist's paradise and indeed I first came here when I was studying for my B.Sc. Honours degree at Manchester University in the 1980's.  Unfortunately I didn't bring a lens suitable for landscapes with me and so I had to make do with photos taken on a mobile phone.

To be continued ...

Farne-tastic!

Keep watching for a report on my wonderful trip to the amazing Farne Islands ...

A Trip to Wykeham and Scarborough

Ever since our trip to Spurn last month, George Pike and I had been talking about going to the Wykeham Raptor Viewpoint near Scarborough to look for Goshawks, so today we decided to do it, taking in the Pine Bunting at Dunnington on the way and Scarborough Harbour at the end.  Well, it was so close to our road it would have been rude not to.

With the Pine Bunting under our belt from Dunnington (details re in my previous posting) we were soon on our way to Wykeham Forest to look for the Gossies.  This was the first time either of us had been and so it was great that a couple of people who'd seen them that morning were already there with scopes.  It wasn't long before a distant Goshawk appeared and I could put it down as another lifer found.

However, it must be said that I didn't have really good views and, if someone else hadn't seen them, I wouldn't have been sure that I had, especially as Goshawks bear more than a passing resemblance to large Sparrowhawks.  In fact, the only photos I got proved to be Buzzards in the end, and so I was quite disappointed by that.

Other birds we saw there included this Crossbill high up in a tree and a Redpoll of which I didn't get a photograph, but not really much else.

But then we moved on to Marine Drive at Scarborough and boy was that different.  Here the coastal road runs around the foot of a cliff face and we'd been told to look out for Peregrines nesting near lampost 55, so we parked the car there. The first birds that I noticed were several pairs of Fulmars nesting in the cliff and later flying in front of it.

As I was photographing the Fulmars, a passerby asked me if I could see the Peregrine and I said "No". She kindly pointed out where one was perched on a ledge and I had a chat with her and her partner about it whilst taking photographs.

But then a second Peregrine flew by, and the two birds chased across the cliff face before they both landed on separate ledges.

There a few further fly-bys by one bird whilst the other stayed perched on its ledge watching.

This is a great place to photograph Peregrines in flight as the cliffs making a stunning backdrop - much more natural than a chimney or building in a city centre and more interesting that a plain blue sky.

I think I'll be coming back one morning when the sun is in a better place for photographs.

Whilst I had been photographing the Peregrines, George had been sea watching and had come up with a couple of harbour porpoises, some Guillemots and a Gannet. He managed to put me on to one of the porpoises for a record photograph.

From here we went along the promenade to the harbour looking for a fish and chip shop for tea, followed by an ice cream - of course this was all due to George as he loves his fish and chips and he has such a sweet tooth.

There were three target birds for us to find that had been recently reported in the harbour: a Great Northern Diver, a Black-necked Grebe and a mysterious so-called 'funny duck'. It was the 'funny duck that I saw first and although George and I had some discussion about it, my initial ID was correct - it was a Guillemot coming into breeding plumage.

After we had eaten, we chased it around for a bit because it kept diving in and around the boats and coming up somewhere a long way off, but finally I managed a couple of half decent shots. We later saw it (or another bird) out on the sea.

We also had a small group of very tame Turnstones feeding on the harbour wall around the lobster pots. I've always felt that the Turnstones on the east coast are a lot more confiding than those which I usually see on the west coast, ever since I first saw them being fed crisps outside a harbour pub at Whitby.

Later we were put onto the Great Northern Diver by a couple who had just seen it at the end of the harbour wall and so we hurried on down there before it decided to leave the harbour for the open sea. 

We had really good views of it catching a crab and eating it and it came pretty close in at times.

We crossed over a bridge over the harbour at the sea ward end and walked along the harbour wall doing a bit of sea-watching. 

We saw another Guillemot and a couple of Red-throated Divers out to sea, but there was no sign of the Black-necked Grebe.

So George and I had a grand day out and saw a good range of species - so much so that we're thinking of suggesting Scarborough for an L.O.S. Sunday birding fieldtrip.